Product Standards in the Field of Mobile Communications in Europe - the Role of Cenelec and ETSI

  • Neubauer, G. (Autor)
  • Kurt Lamedschwandner (Autor)
  • Wolfram Giczi (Autor)
  • Gernot Schmid (Autor)

Aktivität: Vortrag ohne Tagungsband / VorlesungPräsentation auf einer wissenschaftlichen Konferenz / Workshop

Beschreibung

In April 1999 the directive 1999/5/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recognition of their conformity (RTTE directive) was published in the official journal of the European Communities (L91/10 -L91/28, 7.4.1999). The scope of the directive is to establish a regulatory framework for the placing on the market, free movement and putting into service in the Community of radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment. One of the essential requirements given in this directive applicable to all apparatus is the protection of the health and the safety of the user and any other person. To provide means for demonstrating conformity with European directives, CENELEC and the European Commission have reached agreements for CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation) to develop harmonised standards over a wide range of electrotechnical areas, e.g. Electromagnetic Compatibility (Directive 89/336/EEC), Low Voltage Equipment (73/23/EEC), Medical devices (93/42/EEC) and Radio & Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (99/5/EC). Harmonised standards are fulfilling the requirements set by Directives. These standards are unique in the sense that they provide presumption of conformity with the European legal framework and they help therefore manufacturers to comply with the applicable law. Out of 4004 CENELEC standards 20 % are harmonised standards. CENELEC is therefore developing several product standards for different types of products containing specific methods to show compliance with the RTTE directive. It is important to notice that all these standards are based on the limits given in the Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC or in the guidelines of the International Commission on Non - Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) of 1998. For mobile phones, low power electronic and electronical apparatus and electronic article surveillance, radio frequency identification and similar applications harmonised standards were already accepted, for other products as base stations the development of the respective standards is currently on the way. The working group 1 of the technical committee TC 106x of CENELEC has recently developed draft European Standards to demonstrate the compliance of radio base stations and fixed terminal stations for wireless telecommunication systems with the basic restrictions or the reference levels related to general public and occupational exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields. These drafts containing requirements for bringing base stations on the market are submitted to CENELEC members for the Unique Acceptance Procedure (UAP) at the time of preparation of this document. The same working group is currently developing a standard for bringing base stations into service that should be finalised in 2003. Measurement campaigns performed so far in the vicinity of GSM base stations clearly show that exposure levels are well below the limits recommended by the European Union for the general public. The results also demonstrate that the exposure levels vary by order of magnitudes depending on several physical and environmental factors and also show that there is a clear need for harmonisation of measurement protocols. The results demonstrate also that the ongoing activities of CENELEC are urgently needed.
Zeitraum31 Mai 2002
EreignistitelElectromagnetic Fields - New Technologies and Health
VeranstaltungstypSonstiges
BekanntheitsgradInternational

Research Field

  • Biosensor Technologies