Thermal Response of Tissues to Millimeter Waves: Implications for Setting Exposure Guidelines

This Note discusses the implications of a simple model for the thermal response of tissue subject to irradiation with millimeter waves (30-300 GHz) for setting limits for safe exposure to this energy. The estimated thresholds for thermal pain and thermal injury from long-term (minutes) and short-term (seconds) exposures are compared with two major exposure guidelines, IEEE C95.1-2005 and ICNIRP limits. An Appendix describes the rationale for setting the "averaging times" in IEEE C95.1-2005.