# What is the EMF exposure limit in Canada?

> Safety Code 6 allows 4.56 W/m² at 1900 MHz and 5.42 W/m² at 2450 MHz for the public, with 0.08 W/kg whole-body and 1.6 W/kg local SAR restrictions.

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- Record id: `questions:what-is-the-emf-limit-in-canada`
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- Last verified: 2026-08-12
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- Also known as: Safety Code 6 limits, Canada RF exposure limit, Canadian EMF limit

## Key values

- **Topic:** regulation

## Question

What are Canada's RF exposure limits under Safety Code 6?

## Answer

Health Canada's Safety Code 6 (2015) sets uncontrolled-environment reference levels of 0.02619 f^0.6834 W/m² with frequency f in MHz, which works out to 4.56 W/m² at 1900 MHz and 5.42 W/m² at 2450 MHz, rising to a flat 10 W/m² above 6 GHz. The underlying basic restrictions are 0.08 W/kg whole-body SAR and 1.6 W/kg peak spatially-averaged for head, neck and trunk — the same headline SAR figure as the United States. Safety Code 6 is issued as a guideline, but Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada adopts it for equipment certification, so in practice phones, base stations and broadcast antennas must comply.

## Related records

- [Health Canada Safety Code 6 (2015)](https://emfbase.com/standards/safety-code-6): Canada's RF exposure code from 3 kHz to 300 GHz, issued by Health Canada as a guideline and made effectively mandatory for wireless equipment through ISED's certification requirements.
- [Safety Code 6 uncontrolled reference level, 300–6000 MHz](https://emfbase.com/limits/safety-code-6-public-300-6000-mhz): Frequency-dependent power density of 0.02619 f^0.6834 W/m² (f in MHz) — 4.56 W/m² at 1900 MHz and 5.42 W/m² at 2450 MHz, so Canada is somewhat stricter than ICNIRP across the cellular and Wi-Fi bands.
- [Safety Code 6 SAR basic restrictions (uncontrolled)](https://emfbase.com/limits/safety-code-6-sar-limits): 0.08 W/kg whole-body average, with peak spatially-averaged limits of 1.6 W/kg for head, neck and trunk and 4.0 W/kg for limbs — the same headline figure as the U.S.
- [Health Canada](https://emfbase.com/organizations/health-canada): Publishes Safety Code 6, the Canadian RF exposure code that ISED adopts as the basis for certifying phones, base stations and broadcast antennas.

## Sources

- `hc-safety-code-6` Health Canada (2015). *Limits of Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Energy in the Frequency Range from 3 kHz to 300 GHz (Safety Code 6)*. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-risks-safety/limits-human-exposure-radiofrequency-electromagnetic-energy-range-3-300.html — guideline, link checked 2026-08-12
- `hc-safety-code-6-pdf` Government of Canada Publications (2015). *Safety Code 6 (2015), H129-48/2015E-PDF — official PDF edition*. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/sc-hc/H129-48-2015-eng.pdf — guideline, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.