© GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
Mobile Communications: Addressing Electromagnetic Field Concerns and
Environmental Sustainability
Jack Rowley, PhD,
Senior Director Research & Sustainability GSM Association
IIT Delhi, India 9 January 2014
1 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
The GSMA in numbers
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Contents
Growing demand for mobile communications
Electromagnetic fields: – Concerns about using mobile phones. – Concerns about living near masts.
Environmental topics:
– Energy use. – Lifecycle issues. – Enabling effects.
Summary.
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The mobile revolution
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More internet and more use indoors
OFCOM, 2012; ITU, 2012
120x more data 79% indoors
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GSMA Mobile Economy India 2013
http://www.gsmamobileeconomyindia.com/
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Globally deployed mobile technologies
• Total connections, excluding M2M, stand at 6.6 billion in 2012 globally. • Total unique mobile subscribers stands at 3.2 billion in 2012 globally. • About 1.5 billion unconnected due to lack of mobile coverage.
Wireless Intelligence, 2012
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Evolution of mobile technologies
Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2013
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Mobile phones need nearby antenna sites
Phones are low power devices.
Adaptive power control
reduces interference and extends talk-time.
Higher data rates.
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Available data rates reduces with increasing distance
Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2013
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Many types of antenna sites
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Contents
Growing demand for mobile communications
Electromagnetic fields: – Concerns about using mobile phones. – Concerns about living near masts.
Environmental topics:
– Energy use. – Lifecycle issues. – Enabling effects.
Summary.
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Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)
Radio signals are not x-rays. High intensity radio signals cause heating. RF energy absorption assessed by Specific
Absorption Rate (SAR) with units of W/kg.
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WHO International EMF Project
www.who.int/emf
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Hazards of radiofrequency (RF) exposure
Established: – Behavioural changes in
response to heating. – Cataracts
• (very intense exposures).
– Microwave hearing • (radar pulses).
Not established: – Cancer. – Fertility. – Electro
hypersensitivity. – Symptomatic
complaints. – Animals, plants – …
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Exposure
Adverse effects threshold
Safety thresholds for RF exposure
10%
2%
Worker Limit
Public Limit
www.icnirp.org
www.who.int/emf
Typical Levels
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Evidence subject to regular expert review
http://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/mobile-and-health/science-overview/reports-and-statements-index/
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Nordic authorities – December 2013
http://www.nrpa.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=240
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Nordic authorities – December 2013 (1/3)
‘The overall data published in the scientific literature to date do not show adverse health effects from exposure of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below the guidelines or limits adopted in the Nordic countries. However, epidemiological studies on long-term exposure to radio waves from mobile phones are still limited, especially studies on children and adolescents.’
http://www.nrpa.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=240
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Large body of relevant research
http://www.emf-portal.de/overviews.php?l=e
n = 981 n = 45 (children) (8 January 2014)
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Nordic authorities – December 2013 (2/3)
‘Since 2011, a number of epidemiological studies on mobile phone use and risk of brain tumours and other tumours of the head have been published. The overall data on brain tumour and mobile phone use do not show an effect on tumour risk. There is still limited data regarding risks of long-term use of mobile phones, longer than approximately 13-15 years. It is too early to draw firm conclusions when it comes to risk for brain tumours for children and adolescents, but the available literature to date does not show an increased risk.’
http://www.nrpa.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=240
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Mobile phone epidemiology (1/3)
• glioma
• meningioma
INTERPHONE – Cumulative time of use
The INTERPHONE Study Group, 2010
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Mobile phone epidemiology (2/3)
Meta-analysis of 47 eligible studies.
‘Overall, the results of our study detract from the hypothesis that mobile phone use affects the occurrence of intracranial tumors.’
Continue to monitor.
Lagorio et al, 2013
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Mobile phone epidemiology (3/3)
Inskip et al, 2010
USA – subscribers and brain tumour rates
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Nordic authorities – December 2013 (3/3)
‘Since exposure of the general public, including children, to radio waves from the wireless local area networks and base stations is far below the exposure limits, there is no need to further limit exposure from these radio wave sources.’
‘Recent surveys have shown that despite the sharp increase in applications using wireless technology, the level of radio wave exposure in public outdoor areas as well as indoor in schools, offices and dwellings is far below the exposure limits.’
http://www.nrpa.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=240
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Exposure reduces rapidly with increased distance
Worker limit Public limit
Less than 1% of limit
Distance x 2
Exposure ÷ 4
Compliance zones near to the antennas.
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0.06
9.22
0.01 0.413.93
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Average urban, TV and
radio
Baby monitors (20 cm)
Average urban, base
stations
WLAN access point (20 cm)
DECT cordless phone (20 cm)
ICNIRP (100%)
Level (% ICNIRP)
Mobile networks levels similar to other radio sources
Based on Valberg et al., 2007
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No significant change in average exposure
Rowley & Joyner, 2012
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Epidemiology – base stations
Elliott et al., 2010.
National study:
6,985 subjects, 76,890 base station antennas.
Assessed mother’s exposure during pregnancy. Distance, base station power, modelled power density.
‘There is no association between risk of early childhood cancers and estimates of the mother’s exposure to mobile phone base stations during pregnancy.’
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Epidemiology – broadcast transmitters
Ecological studies of broadcast transmitters Australia, UK, USA.
Case-control studies of broadcast transmitters in South Korea and Germany.
Investigations of reported illness clusters. – ‘…it is expected that possible cancer clusters will occur near base
stations merely by chance.’ – WHO (2006)
No hazards found among populations living near high power broadcast transmitters.
Hocking et al., 1996. Ha et al, 2007. Schuz et al., 2008.
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IARC classification for RF – May 2011
http://monographs.iarc.fr
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WHO – September 2013
‘While an increased risk of brain tumours from the use of mobile phones is not established, the increasing use of mobile phones and the lack of data for mobile phone use over time periods longer than 15 years warrant further research of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk.’
‘Studies to date provide no indication that environmental exposure to RF fields, such as from base stations, increases the risk of cancer or any other disease.’
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Established Risk
http://www.michellehenry.fr/tel.htm
Obey the law. Drive safe. Don’t text. Stay in control.
33 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
Contents
Growing demand for mobile communications
Electromagnetic fields: – Concerns about using mobile phones. – Concerns about living near masts.
Environmental topics:
– Energy use. – Lifecycle issues. – Enabling effects.
Summary.
34 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
Energy and greenhouse gas emissions
Total global electricity and diesel energy consumption by all mobile networks was approximately 120 Terawatt hours (TWh) in 2010.
– Energy costs of $13 billion; – Responsible for 70 Mt CO2e.
Almost 80 TWh of the energy consumption was from grid electricity,
and just over 40 TWh was from diesel generators used in off‐grid and unreliable grid locations.
– Typical generator efficiency is 20%.
Total network energy consumption by mobile operators showed no growth from 2009 to 2010.
– Increased energy per connection in emerging markets.
GSMA, Mobile’s Green Manifesto 2012
35 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
GSMA Mobile Energy Efficiency Benchmarking
GSMA mobile energy efficiency (MEE) benchmarking: – Network is more than 70% of operator energy usage. – Energy is 15-25% of network opex. – Typical site 3.2 kW, best in class 1 kW.
www.gsma.com/mee
A B C D E F G H I J K L
kWh per connection
Diesel usage
Electricity usage
Country
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Mexico
Canada
Costa Rica
Brazil
Morocco
Mauritania
Algeria Qatar
South Africa
Australia
Mongolia Kazakhstan
China Japan
Alaska
Greenland
USA
Argentina
Chile Uruguay
Paraguay
Bolivia
Peru
Ecuador
Colombia
Venezuela
Surinam Fr. Guyana
Guyana
Cuba
Jamaica Dominic. Rep.
Bahamas
Guatemala
Belize
Honduras Nicaragua
Panama
El Salvador
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Vietnam
Thailand
Myanmar Laos
Cambodia
Taiwan
South Korea
North Korea Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
India
Bangladesh
Bhutan Nepal Pakistan
Afghanistan Turkmenistan
Iran
Russia
Oman
Yemen
U.A.E Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Turkey Syria Lebanon
Egypt
Israel
Sudan
Ethiopia
Somalia
Eritrea
Libya
Mali Senegal
Sierra Leone Liberia
Ivory Coast Ghana
Burkina Faso
Niger
Guinea Nigeria
Lesotho
Mozambique
Madagascar Botswana
Namibia
Angola Zambia
Zimbabwe
Tanzania
D. R. of Congo
Congo
Gabon
Cameroon
Chad
Kenya
Uganda
Finland
Sweden
Norway Iceland
Great Britain Ireland
Spain Portugal
France
Italy
Germany
Poland Ukraine
Belarus
Romania
Greece
Participant in MEE
MEE participants are located in 145 countries
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GSMA Mobile Energy Efficiency Benchmarking and Optimization Services
Networks are compared against four Key Performance Indicators: 1. Energy consumption per mobile connection 2. Energy consumption per unit mobile traffic 3. Energy consumption per cell site 4. Energy consumption per unit of mobile revenue
Unique analytical approach allows MNOs to compare their networks
against one another and against their peers on a like-for-like basis – Variables outside the MNO’s control, e.g. population distribution
and climate, are ‘normalised’ using regression techniques.
– Quantifies potential efficiency gains, typically 10% to 25%.
If all networks with above average energy consumption were improved to the sector average the potential energy cost saving for mobile operators would be $1 billion per annum at 2010 prices.
38 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
Options to reduce energy consumption
Cooling: – Increase free cooling, increase number of outdoor versus indoor sites. – Use temperature resistant batteries.
Energy efficiency of network equipment:
– Activate energy saving features. – More efficient rectifiers. – Newer equipment. – Single RAN – LTE+3G+2G on same hardware. – Site sharing.
Reduction in diesel consumption:
– Generator‐battery hybrids. – Green power solutions.
39 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
GSMA Green Power for Mobile program
Target = 118,000 green deployments or 20% of total off-grid sites
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Mobile phone lifecycle
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Universal charger solution
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UK - charger out of the box
Over 100 million unused chargers in the UK alone. 70% of customers already have the suitable charger for their new phone.
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Reducing phone environmental impacts
Supply chain. Conflict-free minerals. Design. Fair price. Closing the loop.
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Mobile phone recycling
A 2008 survey of 6,500 people in 13 countries reported: – 44% kept their old phone; – 25% gave it to friends or family; – 16% sold their used phone (especially in emerging markets); – 3% are recycled and; – 4% are thrown in to landfill.
Kenya – 10 authorised repairers but 2,000 to 4,000 informal.
Local sorting – export for safe materials recovery.
Financial and environmental sustainability.
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Materials recovered from recycled phones
• Over 90% of the materials can be recovered.
• Recycling 50,000 handsets can remove the need to mine 110 tonnes gold ore, 213 tonnes of silver bearing ore or 11 tonnes of copper sulphide ore.
• For every tonne of mobile phone materials recovered 10 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are avoided.
www.mobilemuster.com.au/
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GSMA Mobile’s Green Manifesto 2012
Footprint of mobile industry. – Total network CO2e emissions
estimated at 70 million tonnes (Mt) for 2010:
• <0.2% of the global total; • lower than the emissions of Austria.
– Expect emissions per connection to fall by 40% by 2020.
Enabling role of mobile.
– 4 to 5 times own footprint. – Smart applications. – Mobile M2M connections could
enable savings equivalent to taking four million cars off the road. www.gsma.com/environment
47 © GSM Association 2014 J. Rowley, January 2014
GSMA Mobile’s Green Manifesto 2012
www.gsma.com/environment
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Summary
Growing demand for wireless communications means expansion of mobile networks.
No established health risks from the radio signals of mobile phones or antenna sites.
Mobile industry continues to work on reducing its own footprint and expanding enabling effect in other sectors.
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धन्यवाद् Contact: Dr Jack Rowley
Job title: Senior Director
Research & Sustainability
email address:
Website:
www.gsma.com
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