Exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in indoor environments depends on both outdoor sources such as radio, television and mobile phone antennas and indoor sources, such as mobile phones and wireless communications applications. Establishing the levels of exposure could be challenging due to differences in the approaches used in different studies. The goal of this study is to present an overview of the last ten years research efforts about RF EMF exposure in indoor environments, considering different RF-EMF sources found to cause exposure in indoor environments, different indoor environments and different approaches used to assess the exposure. The highest maximum mean levels of the exposure considering the whole RF-EMF frequency band was found in offices (1.14 V/m) and in public transports (0.97 V/m), while the lowest levels of exposure were observed in homes and apartments, with mean values in the range 0.13–0.43 V/m. The contribution of different RF-EMF sources to the total level of exposure was found to show slightly different patterns among the indoor environments, but this finding has to be considered as a time-dependent picture of the continuous evolving exposure to RF-EMF.

Extremely Low Frequency Electric (ELF-EF) and Magnetic Field (ELF-MF) exposure is caused by different types of sources, from those related to the production, transmission, and distribution of electric currents, to technologies of common use, such as domestic appliances or electric transportation. Establishing the levels of exposure for general public is a fundamental step in the health risk management process but could be challenging due to differences in the approaches used in different studies. The goal of this study is to present an overview of the last years research efforts (from 2015 to nowadays) about ELF-EF and MF exposure in everyday environments, considering different sources and different approaches used to assess the exposure. All ELF-EMF exposure levels were found to be below the ICNIRP guidelines for general public exposure. The higher MF levels were measured in apartments very close to built-in power transformers. Household electrical devices showed high levels of MF exposure in their proximity, but the duration of such exposure is extremely limited.

Literature studies showed the ability to treat neuropsychiatric disorders using H1 coil, developed for the deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS). Despite the positive results of the clinical studies, the electric field (E) distributions inside the brain induced by this coil when it is positioned on the scalp according to the clinical studies themselves are not yet precisely estimated. This study aims to characterize the E distributions due to the H1 coil in the brain of two realistic human models by computational electromagnetic techniques and to compare them with the ones due to the figure-of-8 coil, traditionally used in TMS and positioned as such to simulate the clinical experiments. Despite inter-individual differences, our results show that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the region preferentially stimulated by both H1 and figure-of-8 coil when they are placed in the position on the scalp according to the clinical studies, with a more broad and non-focal distribution in the case of H1 coil. Moreover, the H1 coil spreads more than the figure-of-8 coil both in the prefrontal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex and towards some deeper brain structures and it is characterized by a higher penetration depth in the frontal lobe. This work highlights the importance of the knowledge of the electric field distribution in the brain tissues to interpret the outcomes of the experimental studies and to optimize the treatments.

The continuous development of radio frequency (RF) devices used in everyday life highlights the need to conduct appropriate health risk assessment due to RF electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure, especially for the fetal exposure in realistic scenarios. In this study, we used stochastic dosimetry, an approach that combines electromagnetic computational techniques and statistics, to assess the fetal exposure to a fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) tablet in realistic scenarios, assessing the influence of the position of the tablet, the gestational age of the fetus, and the frequency of the emitting antenna. Results showed that the exposure in terms of specific absorption rate (SAR) was within the limits of the ICNIRP 1998 General Public Guidelines in all the considered scenarios. The position of the tablet was very influential for the induced SAR in the fetus, resulting in quartile coefficient of dispersion always higher than 40%. The level of exposure for the later pregnancy was found to be higher than those for the early pregnancy. As to the effect of the emitting frequency of the tablet, we found that the higher the frequency, the lower the induced SAR in the fetus.