Exposure Variability Between 1‐ or 6‐Minute and 30‐Minute Averaging Time Lengths in Radiofrequency‐Electromagnetic Field Exposure Monitoring

Different averaging time lengths (ATLs) are widely used in radiofrequency‐electromagnetic field (RF‐EMF) exposure monitoring. This study evaluated variability in RF‐EMF exposure associated with the ATLs of 1‐ and 6‐min normalised to 30‐min data. For 15 frequency bands of interest, RF‐EMF exposures were collected in contiguous 1‐min blocks over 30 min at four sites (two outdoor and two indoor). Frequency‐band and site‐specific variability in exposure between the three ATLs was assessed. First, the variability in terms of relative deviation (in dB) between 1‐ or 6‐min and 30‐min were estimated. Second, the overall exposure variability (in μW/m 2 ) were compared between 1‐ or 6‐min and 30‐min blocks statistically using the quantile regression method. The overall exposure variability on ATL of 1‐min or 6‐min was considered different to 30‐min if a majority of respective sub‐pair comparisons across different percentiles ( P 5 , P 25 , P 50 , P 75 , P 95 ) were significantly different. The study largely showed that the exposure variability (i.e., relative deviation) of different ATLs was within +/− 3 dB. Further, the overall exposure variability between 1‐ or 6‐min and 30‐min ATLs showed inconsistent outcomes. Frequency bands of broadcast and most of the mobile services < 2 GHz demonstrated overall similar exposure variability for 1‐min and 6‐min ATLs.