August 23, 2019 at 9:10 am
John, HSE have produced a Docks Information Sheet titled Ships’ RADAR in Port but the information is equally pertinent to use offshore. It is available online. It says:
“A typical container ship (with a capacity of about 3000 TEU) might have radar sets of 50 kW (3 cm wavelength) and 60 kW (10 cm wavelength), and a smaller vessel such as a tug might be equipped with a 10 kW set.
Measurements taken in a port, 10 metres from the stationary scanner of a container ship fitted with both a 50 kW set and a 60 kW set, and tests carried out by a manufacturer of radar equipment 10 metres from a 10 kW set with a stationary scanner, have all shown power densities significantly less than 100 μWcm-2.
The examples show that the expected power densities from exposure to ships’ radar at a distance of 10 metres are less than a tenth of the reference levels even when the scanner is stationary. Marine radars normally operate with a pulsed signal and a rotating scanner, so people are not continuously exposed to radiation even if they are in a fixed position such as a crane cab or an office adjacent to shipping.
No link between ill health and exposure to microwaves at levels below the ICNIRP recommendations has been established in the UK among microwave communications and radar engineers in the armed services, electronics, broadcasting or communications industries.
The HPA Advisory Group on Non-lonising Radiation has concluded that there is no clear evidence of a carcinogenic hazard from the normal levels of radio frequency or microwave radiation to which people
are exposed.”