Measurement of non-ionizing radiation (NIR) from Wi-Fi access points and microwave ovens in residential environments

It is essential to monitor the radiation levels to which the general population may be exposed and compare them to limits established by national and international standards. This is especially true in residential environments, where there is a consolidated use of microwave ovens and Wi-Fi access points, in addition to the short distances devices can be from the user, as well as prolonged periods of user exposure. The objective of this work is to measure the exposure levels for daily Wi-Fi and microwave oven use scenarios in residential environments, to compare measured levels with the standards and to verify possible relation with the characteristics of the equipment under analysis. We use the Narda NBM-520 to support our measurements, the same equipment the National Telecommunication Agency (ANATEL) uses for Brazil's Non-ionizing Radiation (NIR) inspection. This work presents measurements in 40 Wi-Fi access points in which the highest exposure level was $ 4.66\,{\rm V}/{\rm m} $ 4.66V/m (7.64 % of the limit), verified for the 2.4 GHz network (the so-called Situation 1). This work also presents measurements in 50 microwave ovens. It was observed that 72% of them had the highest level of exposure for the position in front of the door.