Development of Dosimetry for RF and Microwave Radiation - II

A calculational model is presented to illustrate the strong dependence of electromagnetic absorbed dose rate (absorbed power density) on the size of biological bodies for a given energy flux density. It is found that exposed to an uniform energy flux density (plane wave), the absorbed dose rate in a biological body can be drastically non-uniform and is dependent on the source frequency. This drastic deviation of RF and microwave radiation dosimetric behavior from that of the ionizing radiation should alert the health physicists to the differences in techniques and instrumentations needed for the dosimetric quantifications of these two types of radiations. It is suggested that dosimetry in non-ionizing electromagnetic biological effects experiments could more appropriately be quantified in terms of absorbed dose. The models used for the calculation should not be interpreted as man-equivalent since the geometry and composition of the models do not simulate actual human bodies. Rather, they are used for demonstration purposes. Future research is needed for calculations and experimentations on models which simulate closely human bodies.