Exposure assessment of microwave ovens and impact on total exposure in WLANs

In situ exposure of electric fields of 11 microwave ovens is assessed in an occupational environment and in an office. Measurements as a function of distance without load and with a load of 275 ml of tap water were performed at distances of 1 m, a model of the electric field in a realistic environment is proposed. In an office scenario, switching on a microwave oven increases the median field strength from 91 to 145 mV m(-1) (+91 %) in a traditional Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) deployment and from 44 to 92 mV m(-1) (+109 %) in an exposure-optimised WLAN deployment.In situ exposure of electric fields of 11 microwave ovens is assessed in an occupational environment and in an office. Measurements as a function of distance without load and with a load of 275 ml of tap water were performed at distances of 1 m, a model of the electric field in a realistic environment is proposed. In an office scenario, switching on a microwave oven increases the median field strength from 91 to 145 mV m(-1) (+91 %) in a traditional Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) deployment and from 44 to 92 mV m(-1) (+109 %) in an exposure-optimised WLAN deployment.A