RADIO FREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD

Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

RF-EMF

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

RF-EMF Standards in Malaysia

MS-EMF-2021
  1. MCMC regulation on the RF-EMF emissions from mobile phone base stations and other communications installations is determined in the mandatory standard titled “Commission Determination on the Mandatory Standard for Electromagnetic Field Emission from Radiocommunications Infrastructure” (MS EMF).

  2. The MS EMF (Determination No.1 of 2010), enforced on 1 January 2011, was replaced with the new MS EMF (Determination No. 5 of 2021) , which comes into operation on 1 November 2021. The new MS EMF takes into account current and future technologies, including 5G and updates EMF exposure limits to be in line with the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guideline published in 2020.

  3. The MS EMF applies to Network Facility Providers (NFP) and Network Service Providers (NSP) owning and operating the radiocommunications infrastructures such as the base station transmitters.
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
  1. The MS EMF makes reference to the following Technical Codes to provide guidance on the prediction and measurement methods for the purpose of evaluating EMF exposure to human:
  1. MCMC MTSFB TC G032 - Prediction and Measurement of RF EMF Exposure from Base Station; and
  2. MCMC MTSFB TC G033 - Prediction and Measurement of RF EMF Exposure from Terrestrial Radio and Television Broadcasting Transmitter Station.
 
  1. Based on various long term measurement result, the overall EMF emission within public area surrounding the radiocommunications infrastructure (RCI) are very low. The maximum averaged reading measured was only 10% of the exposure limit for general public at 41 V/m and in compliance with the MS EMF.
ICNIRP-2020

  1. ICNIRP is a non-governmental organization formally recognised by World Health Organization (WHO).
     
  2. The exposure limits for EMF fields published by ICNIRP were developed following reviews of all the peer-reviewed scientific literature, including thermal and non-thermal effects.
     
  3. The main conclusion from the WHO reviews is that EMF exposures below the limits recommended in the ICNIRP international guidelines do not appear to have any known consequence on health.
IEEE Standard for Safety Levels
  1. International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and International Electrotechnical (IEC)  also produced their own recommendations on RF-EMF emissions:
  1. ITU-T K.52 (06/2021)Guidance on complying with limits for human exposure to electromagnetic fields.
  2. IEEE C95.1-2019Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz.
  3. IEC 62209-1528:2020Measurement procedure for the assessment of specific absorption rate of human exposure to radio frequency fields from hand-held and body-worn wireless communication devices - Human models, instrumentation and procedures (Frequency range of 4 MHz to 10 GHz)

RF-EMF Monitoring in Malaysia

MCMC monitors the RF-EMF emission from radio communication sites through the submission of EMF Compliance Report from industry and periodic on-site measurement at identified sites.