Sensors (Sep 2022)

Road User Exposure from ITS-5.9 GHz Vehicular Connectivity

  • Martina Benini,
  • Marta Parazzini,
  • Marta Bonato,
  • Silvia Gallucci,
  • Emma Chiaramello,
  • Serena Fiocchi,
  • Gabriella Tognola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22186986
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 18
p. 6986

Abstract

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This study addressed an important but not yet thoroughly investigated topic regarding human exposure to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) generated by vehicular connectivity. In particular, the study assessed, by means of computational dosimetry, the RF-EMF exposure in road users near a car equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication antennas. The exposure scenario consisted of a 3D numerical model of a car with two V2V antennas, each fed with 1 W, operating at 5.9 GHz and an adult human model to simulate the road user near the car. The RF-EMF dose absorbed by the human model was calculated as the specific absorption rate (SAR), that is, the RF-EMF power absorbed per unit of mass. The highest SAR was observed in the skin of the head (34.7 mW/kg) and in the eyes (15 mW/kg); the SAR at the torso (including the genitals) and limbs was negligible or much lower than in the head and eyes. The SAR over the whole body was 0.19 mW/kg. The SAR was always well below the limits of human exposure in the 100 kHz–6 GHz band established by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The proposed approach can be generalized to assess RF-EMF exposure in different conditions by varying the montage/number of V2V antennas and considering human models of different ages.

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