Assessment of Electromagnetic Energy Absorption Rate in Hibiscus Flower Model at 947.50 MHz and 1842.50 MHz

Abstract

Living biological tissues in plants, fruits and flowers possess considerably high permittivity and electrical conductivity over wide microwave frequency spectrum. Plants, being immobile, are continuously exposed to electromagnetic radiation emitted from cell tower antennas. As a consequence, plants are expected to absorb quite a large amount of incident electromagnetic energy over multiple frequency bands. Different global and national regulatory bodies have put limits on maximum permissible electromagnetic exposure to restrict absorption in humans and minimize related health risks. However, electromagnetic energy absorption in plants along with associated physiological and molecular effects has not been considered in these guidelines. Plants, in general, possess higher surface area while compared to humans or other living objects. In particular, flowers own reasonably high surface to volume ratio and consequently dissipate quite high amount of electromagnetic energy in a relatively less tissue mass. Hence, this paper aims at estimating specific absorption rate data for a hibiscus flower model at 947.50 MHz and 1842.50 MHz. Linearly polarized plane waves at those two frequencies impinge on the hibiscus flower model in separate simulations as per the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines. Maximum local point, averaged over 1g contiguous tissue and whole body averaged specific absorption rate data at those two frequencies are significantly different than the data reported earlier at 2450 MHz - indicating, the nature of dependence of specific absorption rate data on frequency of irradiation, incident field strength and dielectric properties of constituent flower tissue.