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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established by the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, commonly referred to as the Treaty of Washington. The North Atlantic Alliance is a defensive alliance based on political and military cooperation among independent member countries, established in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. At present, NATO comprises 16 member states including: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany (since 1955), Greece (since 1952), Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain (since 1982), Turkey (since 1982), The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, and The United States.

The rapidly increasing use of mobile telephones has raised some concern regarding the possible health effects associated with exposure to radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields. It has been suggested that amplitude-modulated RF fields emitted by some mobile phone systems might cause biological effects similar to the purported cancer-related effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF).

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is adopting the provisions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) C95.1–1991, “IEEE Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz,”1 as its new Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR) protection standard under DoD Instruction 6055.11. The IEEE standard was approved by the IEEE in 1991 and by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1992, and is a revision of the ANSI C95.1–19822 standard. It is a significant improvement over previous standards. The Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI)3 was drafted by the Tri-service Electromagnetic Radiation Panel (TERP), which includes representatives from each of the service’s Surgeon’s General offices, RF bioeffects research functions, and the RF consultation functions. Presently, the Air Force chairs the TERP.

The goal of our research is to understand the effects of modulated radiofrequency radiation on chemical reaction dynamics. Our work is motivated by reports of effects of modulated radiofrequency radiation on electroencephalogram activity (Takashima et al., 1979; Bawin et al., 1973; Servantie et al., 1975) and by reports addressing tissue calcium handling (Adey, 1979; Luben et al., 1982). We have specifically attempted to find the simplest chemical system that might demonstrate field modulation effects and non-monotone responses to increasing field amplitudes.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a biological perspective for radiofrequency radiation safety standards. Rather than a detailed consideration of specific safety standards now in effect, or proposed safety standards, general problems involved in integrating available bioeffects data into practical and effective safety standards are discussed. The reader will find other aspects of standard setting and enforcement discussed elsewhere in this volume. Engineering problems related to RF-field coupling to the human body and the measurement and characterization of incident and internally induced RF fields, as well as cost-benefit considerations, unquestionably play a significant role in the development of standards. The approach taken here, of focussing primarily on the biological basis of RF standards, should not be construed as an attempt at diminishing the significance or inadequacy of these other aspects of standard setting. However, in the final analysis the most important aspect of a safety standard must be its adequacy in preventing adverse health effects in occupationally or environmentally exposed humans. This cannot be assured in the absence of an adequate understanding of the biological effects of RF radiation. Unfortunately, in spite of well over two decades of research, the adequacy of our knowledge of RF bioeffects is questionable. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of some inadequacies in the RF bioeffects data base and how and why they evolved.

Very few Western European countries - if any - have a legislation regarding both occupational and population exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. However, most countries have some form of regu-lation of the occupational exposure for frequencies above about 10 MHz, either as limits, standards or as guidelines. There is also an accordance in the values and generally it can be said that most countries tend to follow the values given by ANSI C95-1982 with only minor divergences.

The art and science of standards-making relative to safe exposure to electromagnetic fields is not trivial and includes some subtle issues. The thresholds for effects (hazardous or not) in animals at a given frequency are most simply expressed in terms of some exposure parameter, like power density, and an exposure duration.

As in the optical domain, radio frequency radiation which comes from the sun is characterized by its intensity and its polarization which, in general, vary as a function of time and frequency. With antennas of large dimensions, the solar regions from which these emissions come and eventually the diameter or even the structure of these regions, can also be determined.