Polynomial Chaos applied to the exposure assessment of child to Radio-Frequency field emitted by tablet devices

The public concern toward the exposure to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (RF-EMF) is continuously growing, due also to the increasing use of wireless communication system. The assessment of real exposure scenarios is still an open issue, due to the variability of the input parameters that influence the exposure itself (e.g., the source design, the frequency band used, the morphology of the subject exposed). Classical electromagnetic computational techniques are typically leading to highly time consuming simulations, if the variation of the, before mentioned, parameters is taken into account. A promising alternative to this issue is given by Polynomial Chaos (PC) theory, which is an efficient method to assess the variability of exposure at a lower computational cost. In this study (ANSES project Acte http://whist.mines-telecom.fr), PC theory has been applied to study the exposure of a 1-year-old child to a 3G tablet emitting at the frequency of 1940 MHz with 1 W input power. The exposure has been characterized in terms of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). A PC expansion has been built to estimate the whole-body SAR and the SAR in the brain, separately, to assess the variability of the child exposure with the change in the tablet position.