Is RF bad for health?

the oscillators I was hearing were in the 50 milliwatt range...not enough to cause any heating. I could close my eyes, and touch/not touch the oscillating circuit with a tiny screwdriver, and definitely hear when I was touching it. I just chalked it up to "well, ain't that special!"

And yeah, when I start to see microwave phantoms, I will let u guys know!

Did you consider running any controls with that experiment? One simple control would be to have an assistant silently turn the oscillator on or off while you were blind folded. Another control woud be to test multiple subjects.

Without controls, it is not even "ain't that special."

John

One old RF expert told me that if you work with PA, more than 10W and more than 2GHz, or in microwave freq band, you may get cataract when you are older, cause as someone foresaid, there is no boold to dissipate the heat in the eye ball.
So no long time working with PA. I adjusted many PA from 10G to 40G, with power up to 1W maximally, never felt any upset. But never do it year by year.
That guy told me when he tried to match the 50W or even higher PA, the matching microstrip little block became from white to black due to high power.
RF works in receiver should be more safe.
Mobile phone is safe because it must pass the SAR test, which is to protect the body of human being from hurt by radiated power.
Keep away from radar, especially the Russia radar, I saw their radar safe standard for warrior, the standard is only keep the warrior not to die.

Keep away from radar, especially the Russia radar, I saw their radar safe standard for warrior, the standard is only keep the warrior not to die.

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Hmm.. surprising..
When I was in near proximity to a military radar using (at a guess) about 2.4m dish, they took very great care of me. Lower section of access ladder blocked and padlocked. Full communication with operators not to use Tx while I was on the roof. I was to show myself personally to the guy responsible and give him back the key before he would fire it up.

That was for training and practice. I then found out that in real battle situations, depending on the assessed need, they would opt to sacrifice the warrior!

A helicopter pilot taking off from an aircraft carrier probably experiences very high fields.

Darktrax said:

A helicopter pilot taking off from an aircraft carrier probably experiences very high fields.

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hey, a military pilot taxiing around an airport probably gets a good dose too. But so would a worker in a high rise building if he can look out his window and see a 3' microwave dish pointed right at him from another building top. ERP is a mother!

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jpanhalt said:

Did you consider running any controls with that experiment? One simple control would be to have an assistant silently turn the oscillator on or off while you were blind folded. Another control woud be to test multiple subjects.

Without controls, it is not even "ain't that special."

John

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why would I waste time on that? You have time to dick off all day? I'll tell your boss, he'll fix that for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect

Re: Is RF bad for health

Looking back over these post including my own, I think the title "Is RF bad for health" is the problem with all these type of questions. We just do not know, and possibly will never know, a better title (possibly) might be "Should I take any precautions using RF?"
There are good posts about the numbers exposed and no big effects observed, there are the post on big radars and PA's and avoiding the burns. There are huge ranges in powers, exposure and duration, plus how long it takes for exposure to result in observed issues such as cancer.
For example exposure to excessive sun (UV) will cause skin damage and possibly cancer some 30 to 40 years or longer after exposure (in some people). So what? Well we haven't been exposed to mobile phones for that length of time, hence why I disagree with those who say there is no risk of health issue.

My view, put very simply is that we can use low power RF devices probably without problems, but as the duration of the exposure and the power of the exposure increases take more precautions.
Don't exposure yourself to RF more than necessary, put WIFI, mobiles, hands free devices (particularly base stations) away from your body and particularly your head! AND not by your bedside table! OR near to children, it just makes sense when we don't know the answers....

I had a nice chart many years ago and it showed some RF frequencies and wave shapes can induce sound and some aircraft and airport radars can induce optical effects such as flashes, so again showing an effect, but for 'normal' exposure, not an issue..... probably!

I guess it depends on your height. When you stand up you become a monopole antenna from the earth. Just try to avoid the frequency 'lamda/4=your height'.

Eyes are sensitive to heat from IR or microwave ( meaning causes cataracts ). Initially they may cause blood shot eyes from prolonged exposure,

However inverse square losses are quite significant .

A complete account of safety levels around the world are documented here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation_and_health

Eye is RF sensitive. Body parts may show lens effects.

https://www.jpier.org/PIERM/pierm35/04.14010703.pdf

SunnySkyguy said:

Eyes are sensitive to heat from IR or microwave ( meaning causes cataracts ). Initially they may cause blood shot eyes from prolonged exposure,

However inverse square losses are quite significant .

A complete account of safety levels around the world are documented here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation_and_health

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Great discussion on RF and found new information, so thanks for asking and sharing with others.