Urban radio-frequency electromagnetic field exposure in New York City

This study investigates Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-EMF) exposure across New York City's five boroughs. The RF-EMF exposure was measured in 39 bands across the 88 MHz to 5.925 GHz frequency range using an exposimeter fixed in a backpack that was worn during walks along 38 predetermined paths in various representative urban environments of the city from September 2024 to May 2025. We calculated the summary statistics (minimum, p25, arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median, p25, p50, p75, p90, standard deviation) in units of electric field strength (V/m) and compared RF-EMF exposure quantitatively across urban environment type: commercial, residential, greenery, train underground, water ferry, indoor; across the five boroughs of the City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island; and across six technology categories: radio and TV broadcast, cellular downlink, cellular uplink, WiFi (WLAN), Time Division Duplex (TDD), and Total Exposure. We also analyzed whether population density and foot traffic in each area correlate with RF-EMF exposure. A mean total RF-EMF exposure of 0.97 ± 0.88 V/m was measured in NYC. We found that cellular downlink is the dominant contributor to mean environmental exposure, accounting for 45% to 55% of the total exposure in each borough. We found a moderate positive correlation (ρ = 0.5, p-value <0.05) between exposure and foot traffic, and a weak or negligible, but statistically significant, positive correlation (ρ = 0.1, p-value <0.05) between exposure and domiciled population density. The study provides a detailed assessment of the RF-EMF exposure levels in various urban environments offering a clearer understanding of the extent of exposure in a densely populated city like New York where wireless communication networks are continuously expanding. These results are important for policymakers when establishing RF exposure guidelines for the population of NYC and other urban areas in North America.