“Wireless Communication Safety Concerns: Science, Standards and Regulations” by Chung-Kwang Chou, PhD, Chief EME Scientist and Director of Corporate EME Research Laboratory, Motorola, Plantation, Florida, USA.

Date:  July 26, 2011 (Wednesday)
Time:  7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Venue:  PSDC, 1 Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia

Admission is free.  Refreshments will be served at 7:00 pm.

Network and interact with like-minded engineers and researchers before the seminar begins.

Abstract

The dramatic increase in man-made radio frequency (RF) fields in the environment during the last few decades has led to public health concerns in many parts of the world.  Specifically, questions have been raised on the safety of exposure to RF energy emitted from radar, television and radio communication systems, microwave ovens, video display terminals, and most recently, mobile telephones and base stations, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and LTE.  The WHO/IEEE EMF database now has more than 2600 original, peer-reviewed papers useful for public health risk assessment of RF exposure.

The first topic will be on research to summarize recent epidemiological, human, animal and in vitro studies. Reviews of independent expert panels and health authorities will be discussed.  To protect human health and to make measurements of RF emitting devices, exposure and assessment standards have been developed.  The IEEE C95.1-2005 human exposure guidelines and IEEE C95.7-2005 RF safety program recommendations are used for limiting human exposure. The IEEE C95.1-2005 standard will be compared to the 1998 guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. Measurement standards include IEEE 1528 and IEC 62209 part 1 (characterizing mobile phone exposure in the head) and IEC 62209 part 2 (two-way radios and body worn devices).

Current regulatory status in the world will be presented. Variations of exposure limits adopted by different countries reflect the political nature of this issue. The final topic on risk communication is extremely important, and will cover the latest findings with respect to the perceptions and attitudes of people, who are trusted sources of information and why, and the influence of culture and other factors on risk communications and precautionary advice. The role of consistency and the need for harmonization of RF safety standards as important elements for minimizing confusion in public concern will be emphasized.

Speaker

Dr Chung-Kwang Chou is a world-­renowned expert in a very specialized field of science that brings together the world of biology and eletromagnetics. He has spent 40 years of his career dedicated to the research of biological effects and medical applications of electromagnetic energy, exposure and measurement standards.

Dr Chou received the B.S.E.E. from National Taiwan University in 1968, M.S. from Washington University, St. Louis in 1971, and Ph.D. from University of Washington, Seattle in 1975.

He started his career in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Center for Bioengineering of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington State from 1971-1985.

He became Research Scientist and Director of Department of Radiation Research at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California from 1985-1998.

In 1998, he joined Motorola, and became Chief EME Scientist, and Director of Corporate EME Research Laboratory, responsible for RF product safety in Plantation, Florida.

He has been involved in IEEE standard committees since 1979, and currently he is the Chairman of Technical Committee 95 of the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety of IEEE, responsible for electromagnetic exposure standards from 0 to 300 GHz.

Dr Chou has published about 200 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and presented more than 280 conference papers and abstracts, and 200 invited talks. He is a Fellow of IEEE (1989) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (1996), and Electromagnetic Academy (2007).

He held key positions in numerous technical societies and committees. He served on Board of Directors of the Bioelectromagnetics Society (1981-1984), Associate Editor of the Journal of Bioelectromagnetics (1987-2003), Chairman of IEEE/EMBS Committee on Man and Radiation (1996-1997), Co-Chairman of IEEE Scientific Coordinating Committee 28, Subcommittee 4 on RF Safety Standard (1997-2005), Vice Chairman of Committee 89-5 of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (1996-1999), and Council Member of NCRP (1998-2004).

He received many awards for his contributions. He received the first special award for the decade (1970-1979) from International Microwave Power Institute in 1981, the outstanding paper award from Journal of Microwave Power in 1985, the Curtis Carl Johnson Memorial Award from Bioelectromagnetics Society in 1995, the IEEE Standards Medallion Award in 2005 and in 2006, Motorola’s Global Standard Impact Award as well as the highest honor d’Arsonval Medal from Bioelectromagnetics Society.