What is radiofrequency /microwave (RF/MW) radiation?
(Excerpts and illustrations from Electromagnetic Fields: A Consumer’s Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves by B. Blake Levitt, Harcourt Brace, 1995. Used by permission of author.) *All links below will open in a new browser window. All documents on this page are PDF files. Radiofrequency radiation falls between about 3 kilohertz and 300 gigahertz on the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a broad area on the electromagnetic spectrum which includes many frequencies and wavelengths. Microwave (MW) radiation runs from a few megahertz up to around 100 gigahertz, which is used for military communications. All radio waves (RF/MW) radiate into space at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), and each wave is associated with a wavelength and a frequency. Wavelength refers to the distance that the wave travels through space in a single cycle between one peak or valley of the radio wave and the next. Frequency indicates the number of waves in one second. Since the radiofrequency
