Salzburg milliwatt is no threshold value
-but an arbitrary, political demand that cannot be implemented in practice
Although the political claim by the City of Salzburg to introduce a new limit of 0.001 W/m ² (the so called "Salzburg milliwatt; 1 mW/m²) was tabled in the relevant Federal Parliament as a motion, it was rejected by a large majority on January 31, 2002.
Consequently, with the OVE/ÖNorm E 8850 (with ÖNorm S S1120 applied previously) the reference and base values of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), which are also recommended in the EU Commission's recommendation dated July 12, 1999, have applied mandatorily throughout Austria since 2006. The reference values are 4.5 W/m² for GSM 900 MHz, 9,0 W/m² for GSM 1800 and 10 W/m² for UMTS.
The Federal Swiss Communication Authority (BAKOM) has investigated the feasibility of the precautionary Salzburg value and published its results in February 2002:
The Salzburg assessment value of 1 mW/m² is exceeded by up to 40 times at eight of the total of 13 randomly selected transmission sites.
Furthermore, analyses of emission scenarios show that residents in urban areas in the vicinity of transmission facilities are subject to emissions averaging between 10 and 200 mW/m² for modern GSM networks.
Consequently, the measurements and the computer simulated emission scenarios clearly show that an emission value of 1 mW/m² cannot be observed in urban areas for residents in the vicinity of aerial facilities for technical and operational reasons.
It would be virtually impossible to maintain emission values below around 100 mW/m2 without considerable economic consequences.
The report by the Bavarian State Environment Authority entitled "Opportunities and limits to the minimisation of mobile telephone emissions" also provides evidence that the claim for the "Salzburg precautionary value" cannot be implemented: In the freely accessible report, over 1,200 measurements were conducted in Germany and the resulting database analysed accordingly, among other things with respect to the "Salzburg recommendation".
"It is time to finally sweep away the myth of the Salzburg milli- or even microwatt", says FMK managing director Maximilian Maier. "The politically motivated claims could only be fulfilled by switching off the mobile phone networks", explains Maier, noting that "especially in alpine tourist areas such as Salzburg one has to consider the reliable availability of a mobile telephone service: The requirements being promoted in Salzburg simultaneously signify the elimination of the only nationwide emergency alert system for the general public. It is surprising that this situation is being systematically concealed or negated by those responsible for public health."
