Assessment of Electromagnetic Pollution in Some Hospitals and Schools in Al-Najaf City

The tremendous benefits of using cellular phones, which began to increase and unprecedented spread worldwide last decade, were accompanied by harmful effects on the environment due to the increase in electromagnetic radiation (EMR) which be emitted from mobile phone towers. This effect on humans, animals, and plants, which is considered a form of environmental pollution, was sensed by developed countries and Environmental protection organizations. These countries have established restrictions and enacted laws to reduce their negative impact on living beings. The field survey included six major hospitals and 38 schools were distributed over the central neighborhoods in Al-Najaf city. The results showed that power density (PD) measurements for 4 out of 6 hospitals and 27 out of 38 schools were higher than the biological limit (BL) adopted in this article. This limit is considered as an indicator of the onset of a harmful effect on brain and body tissues. The highest value for PD in hospitals was 5.62 mW/m2 recorded in Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital. PD measurements ranged from1.33 from 3.92 mW/m2 in the selected schools where its readings exceeded the BL. When comparing the PD measurements at the selected sites with limits set by the "International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)" they were less than the recommended limit in those specifications. All values of specific absorption rates (SAR) in W/Kg were below the ICNIRP Guidelines' limit. However, they were above the biological limit for four hospitals and several of the selected schools.


INTRODUCTION
(Shashank Vijay and Mahendra Pratap Choudhary 2017) defined electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation, as photons' flow in space where the photons contain energy. Depending on the amount of energy in it, different types of radiation may be defined. EMF radiations are categorized into two types, known as ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation (NIR). Ionizing radiations contain the energy sufficient to overcome the binding energy of electrons in atoms or molecules, hence creating ions. Examples of ionizing radiation are UV rays and X-rays. They add that "NIR are those which do not carry much energy per quantum to ionize atoms or molecules. Examples are low-frequency radiations such as radio waves and microwaves". Nowadays, cities confront the most powerful EMF" in terms of NIR due to the presence of transmitters for mobile communication in crowded areas. This type of source constantly grew in the last years because of the large number of mobile services providers and antenna sites (James, 2009; Ioan and Claudiu, 2016). After long-term NIR exposure, common health risks might comprise "hypersensitivity syndromes, cognitive declines, autonomic dysfunctions, and brain tumors" (Croft et al., 2002;Levitt and Lai, 2010). Numerous studies also stated that high EMF exposure was connected with a greater danger of childhood leukemia (Kabuto et al., 2006). (Hardell et al., 2005) asserted an apparent connection between cordless and mobile phone use with conditions such as "lymphoma, malignant and benign brain tumors",  as well as other problems including changes in blood pressure (Braune et al., 1998;Genuis, 2007). Young humans are probably more vulnerable to environmentally Journal of Engineering Volume 27 March 2021 Number 3 3 poisonous materials. They may receive higher portions than adults either because of "developing skulls of children or because of their smaller body size". They might be exposed to higher electromagnetic absorption from the exposure to EMF's than adults (Saunders and Jefferys, 2007; Behari et al., 2012). These EM waves are even more hazardous when there is a 20-meter distance. Not only this, but these may also bring about biological defects and" more severe mutations in DNA" (Aggarwal and Gupta, 2011). Low-frequency radiations could also cause hormonal problems. The hormone 'melatonin' production is interrupted and causes "Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and many cardiac, neurological and ophthalmological diseases" (Goswami, 2010). At the same time, lower animals are stated to very sensitive to EMF. It is noted that animals like mice make their living brooding holes not close to the high electric field, and bees block-up their hives in the continuous presence of NIR and EMF (Repacholi, 2003). According to (Balmori, 2009), EMR can exert a repulsive behavioral response in bats and birds such as sparrows. (Balmori 2009) concluded that EMR is a form of EMP which might damage wildlife. It was noticed that in the nearby high voltage installations, changes might happen in some plant species. Thus, some species remain inferior in size. In contrast, other species grow excessively or develop alternations in reproduction, like producing a large number of seeds, even flourishing, or not seeding at all, or producing seeds of lousy quality (Doru Vatau et al., 2015). Previous studies mentioned above have shown that the harmful effects of EMR pollution include humans, animals, plants, and the entire ecosystem. It is also clear that many international organizations concerned with environmental affairs and developed countries consider EMR as a type of environmental pollution (EP). Therefore, it established specifications and enacted laws to limit its harmful effects. This article aims at assessing the levels of EMP emitting from mobile phone towers near the sites of some hospitals and schools of Al-Najaf city in Iraq. This research paper also aims to know the effect of EMP on the health of children and patients, also, to compare the levels of EMP in those locations with the allowable limits. Najaf is a city with a population of 1,500,522 people (according to 2017 statistics). Its geographical area is 28,824 square kilometers, and it lies within a longitude of 44º19' E and the latitude of 31º59' N and is 70 meters above the mean sea level (Abdulkareem, 2018).

MATERIALS and METHODS
The current paper was carried out for three months, from 1st May to1st August 2020. Two parameters were used in this study, namely the PD and SAR to determine and know the levels of exposure to EMR at the selected sites. PD measurements were performed by Tenmars, TM-196, which is one of the devices that detect NIR in frequency ranges from 10 MHz to 8 GHz. This device is a 3-Axis (isotropic) Radiofrequency, a field strength meter with three-channel measurement sensor produced by Tenmars Electronics Co.Ltd., Taiwan. This device is used to measure the high-frequency electromagnetic strength in terms of Electric Field, Magnetic Field, and PD with their instantaneous, average, and maximum value (User's Manual). The readings were allowed to stabilize for 60 to 120 seconds before noting them in the maximum average mode. For each chosen site, five measurements were performed for different spots around the site, after which the average of readings was taken. The meter is positioned vertically at the height of 150 cm above the ground level. This height represents the average height of a person. The readings in the device for measuring the PD were in milliwatts per square meter. Measurements of the fieldwork included six main hospitals in addition to 38 schools distributed in different neighborhoods of Al-Najaf city, as shown in Fig. 1. The "rate at which radiation is absorbed by the human body is measured in terms of SAR. It is described as the transfer of energy from electric and magnetic fields to charged particles in an absorber". In this work, "local SAR has been estimated at a point on the brain as the absorber. Local SAR is related to the electric field through the equation = Mass density of human brain tissue (kg/m 3 ).
The PD values measured by the Tenmars in mW/m 2 units were used to compute SAR Using Eq.
( 2). Table1. shows the values of and constants according to the frequencies shown in it.

LIMITATIONS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION POLLUTION
To compare the PD measurements in this research paper, the ICNIRP Guidelines were adopted for being widespread and approved by most countries of the world, especially developed countries. For example, Indian standards considering India as one of the Asian countries adopted the ICNIRP guidelines before 1/9/2013. After the mentioned date, its specifications were updated to be 10% of the previous specifications. Likewise, the PD measurements were compared to Austria, Salzburg City determinants. They adopted the lowest permissible level of EMR pollution, which gives a clear indication of minimizing the harmful effect of EMP. Adopting the mentioned international specifications was due to the absence of the Iraqi specifications related to the permissible limits of NIR emitted from mobile phone towers. There are many other international specifications as well as the specifications adopted in this paper, as shown in Table 2.  et al., 2000). Table (3) shows the maximum permissible level for SAR, which was adopted in the current research.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The present study's field survey included six governmental and private hospitals and 38 schools distributed over 16 central neighborhoods in AL-Najaf city. PD measurements for 27 out of 38 schools exceeded the biological limit (1 mW/m 2 ), as shown in Fig. 2. The exceeded values ranged from 1.33 to 3.92 mW/m 2 . It was noticed from the mentioned figure that the highest value of PD was at site 26, which represents Huthaifa bin Al-Yman school in the Al-Furat neighborhood. This is due to the presence of five communication towers; the closest to the school was 100 meters away, and internet towers close to the school mentioned above. It has been observed in other the schools when the PD exceeds the permitted BL, the communication towers were 40 to 350 meter away from these schools. The number of communication towers surrounding some of these schools exceeded three towers in different directions and contained a large number of antennas. The data in Fig. 3 show hospitals that have been exposed to levels of radiation higher than the BL adopted in this study. The highest PD rate was (5.62 mW/m 2 ) in Al-Sadr Hospital, which is the most significant hospital in Al-Najaf city. This study's PD measurements are less than the permissible values in the specifications of some other countries shown in Table 2. This gives an impression of the disparity of those countries in the limits they consider harmful to public health.
Comparing the results in this study with the BL approved by Salzburg City in Austria is considered a safety factor to ensure that the brain tissue is not affected by the EMP emitted by cell phone towers. Hence, the real harmful effects on body tissues begin after this limit is exceeded.  It was noticed that the results in Table 4. showed that the SAR values for hospitals were much less than (2W/Kg), whereas when comparing the mentioned data for all frequencies, all of them are above the biological limit. The highest calculated value for SAR for all frequencies was at location B, which represents Al-Sadr Hospital. The highest percentage exceeding the biological limit was 160%, 240%, and 270% for the frequencies 0.90 GHz, 1.80 GHz, and 2.10 GHz, respectively.   Table 5 shows that several schools' SAR values exceeded the biological limit. The highest percentages of exceeding the biological limit were 110%, 170%, and 190% for 0.90GHz, 1.80GHz, and 2.10 GHz, respectively, at site 26, which represented Huthaifa bin Al-Yman school in the Al-Furat neighborhood. Data from the table above also showed that all SAR values for chosen schools were much less than the recommended limit in ICNIRP specifications.

CONCLUSIONS
During the work of the current study, the following conclusions were reached: 1. Levels of radiation exposure which represented by PD in 27 out of 38 schools and 4 out of 6 hospitals, were above the BL adopted in this study, where the limit begins with the real harmful effects on brain and body tissues.
interrelationship between some diseases such as leukemia prevalent among children and exposure to NIR over long periods.
5. It is recommended that the environmental protection authorities in Najaf governorate obligate the telecommunications companies responsible for installing mobile phone towers to finance the environmental impact assessment studies, which are preferably conducted periodically. In addition to assigning environmental scientists in educational institutions to conduct independent studies about the environmental impact assessment to detect the harmful effect on the environment and the health risk on human beings.
6. Increasing environmental awareness to identify the dangers of EMP, especially for children. By giving educational sessions to school teachers to promote a culture of environmental protection among school children.
7. Increasing green areas around schools and hospitals to reduce Harmful impacts of EMP in those places.