Homework 2:

Non-Ionizing Radiation

NAME:
1. In your own words, briefly explain the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing

radiation.

IONIZING RADIATION:
Ionizing radiation is the type of radiation which can break the presence of bonds

between molecules due the amount of energy it carries and tend to ionize them. For

example: Alpha rays, Beta rays, Gamma rays and X-rays.

NON-IONIZING RADIATION:
These type of radiations does not carry enough radiation to break the bonds

between the molecules which they encounter in their path and they don’t ionize them.

For example: Radio frequency and microwave.

2. Draw (by hand) an EMF wave form in the far-field. Be sure to label E and H.

3. What is the wavelength of a router that communicates at the 2.4 GHz frequency?

The wavelength of a router that communicates at 2.4 GHz frequency is 122.45

mm.

4. Which form of non-ionizing radiation do you think is more hazardous to the entire human

body: a 100 MHz wave, or a 100 Hz wave? Please provide justification for your response.
 The greater the frequency of the radiation, greater will be its penetration into

the human body and greater will be its effect. Obviously, the 100 MHz wave will

have greater penetration into the human body and will be more hazardous.

When the frequency is greater than 10MHz, the heat produced in the body is

more which creates more resonance which increases the tissue damage.

5. What are the primary target organs and health effects caused by overexposure to blue

light and to broadband visible light?

Blue light:
Blue light is a part of the visible light. The overexposure of blue light leads

to the retinal damage deep into the eye. This can even cause permanent loss of

vision and permanent cellular damage.

6. As an EH&S professional, which are you most concerned about with regard to visible

light: safety or health effects? Please explain

As an EH&S professional, safety against the health issues is more concerned

because the too much exposure to visual light can lead to serious damage to the

retina of the eye which in some cases leads to the total blindness of the eye.
7. In your own words, please briefly explain IR light and its composition.

IR is called Infrared or infrared radiation which is invisible to human eye because

its wavelength lies outside the visual wavelengths. The wavelength of IR is general from

700 nm – 1 mm and its frequency ranges from 430 THz – 300 GHz having the photon

energy ranging from 1.7 eV – 1.24 meV .

8. What is the maximum allowable exposure time (according to the TLV for UV radiation), in hours, if

you were exposed to an effective irradiance of 0.002 W/cm2 from narrowband 350 nm UV

radiation? Note: mJ/cm2 / 1000 = J/cm2

ℎ𝑐 6.626×10−34 ×3×108
As 𝐸 = =
λ 350×10−9

𝐸 = 5.679 × 10−19

Therefore,

0.002
𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 5.679×10−19 = 3.52 × 1015 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠

𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 9.78 × 1011 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠

9. Assuming the needed level of optical density to protect a worker from UV radiation was

4.2, what minimum shade number for lenses is needed for PPE?
 The required shade number can be found from the following formula

7
𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 = 1 + (3 𝑂𝐷)

7
=1+ 4.2 = 10.8
3

10. What is the total effective radiance of a blue light lamp that produces 0.72 W/cm2 ·sr at

425 nm (400-450 nm band) and 1.0 W/cm2 ·sr at 475 nm (450-500 nm band)?

𝑊
𝐿𝐵 = = (1.110 × 0.950 × 100)(0.550 × 0.550 × 100) = 3189.8625 𝑛
𝑐𝑚2

11. . Given a single 10 second exposure 120 cm from a near-IR lamp producing a total

effective radiance of 18.1 W/cm2 ·sr, would a worker be overexposed according to the

TLV? The IR lamp diameter is 9.4 cm.

The worker would be overexposed.

12. . An AM radio tower transmits at 1.42 MHz. How many miles from the tower would you

need to travel to be in the far-field? The surface area of the antenna is not known so

you’ll need to use the rule of thumb distance to the far-field.

1.42 × 106
𝑈𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑏 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = 473.33 𝑘𝑚
3

13. Given a RF source with an electric field strength of 200 V/m, what is the intensity of the

magnetic field? Assume you are in the far field.

𝐸𝑜 200
The given formula is 𝐵0 = = = 6.667 × 10−7 𝑇
𝑐 3×108

14. Given an exposure to RF/microwave radiation of 400 mW/cm2 and a recommended

exposure limit of 220 mW/cm2 at that frequency, what is the maximum allowable

exposure time, in minutes?

The maximum allowable exposure time is calculated as

400
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = = 1.8 𝑠𝑒𝑐
220
15. Explain the process for assessing the variable field strength exposure of a person in an

RF/microwave field.

The variable filed strength of RF or microwave can deeply effect the human body

even without activating the heat sensors in the body of the person which result in the

increasing level of such radiations in the body in case of long term thinking,

16. A person is exposed to a 16.3 mT virtually static magnetic field (4 Hz). Is this worker

exposed above the TLV?

4
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = = 245.498 𝑠 < 1000𝑠
16.3 × 10−3

No this worker is not exposed to TLV.

17. Please describe the aversion response with regard to laser safety.

Aversion Response:
Aversion response is the crucial response which is done due to the rapid

exposure of laser light which includes the eye and head movements, the

constriction of pupils, the closure of eyelids etc.

18. Draw (by hand) a laser and its NHZ. Be sure to label and define the NHZ boundary and

MPE

19. Assuming a divergence angle of 0.36 degrees and a 2 cm beam diameter at 10 feet, what

is the emerging beam diameter?

𝐷𝐿 = √(0.5)2 + (0.36)2 (0.01)2 = 0.5

3.048 – 0.5
𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 = = 254.8°
0.01
20. What is the distance from the lens to the NHZ boundary, in feet, of a 500 W laser shot

through a 20 cm focal length lens with a 0.5 cm beam diameter? Assume the MPE is 0.12

W/cm2 .

𝑓 4∅
𝑅𝑁𝐻𝑍 = 𝑏𝑜 √𝜋×𝑀𝑃𝐸 = 9.21 × 10−7 ft
𝑜

21. Would gold be a good shielding material for a magnetic field source? Why or why not?

Gold may not be a good shield for shielding magnetic field source because gold

itself cannot produce its own magnetic field which will counter effect the source’s

magnetic field because of it non-ferromagnetic nature.