FEtus

    Over the past 30 years the wireless communication systems such as mobile phones have been increasingly used. The versatile use of new mobile phone and the development of small communicating systems are strengthening this tendency. In spite of existing protection limits there is worldwide a public concern about possible health risk linked to the electromagnetic field exposure. The uncertainty relative to the EMF exposure assessment can depress general public to use innovative wireless systems even if such innovations are useful. Management of the exposure, optimization of the exposure, prevention of overexposure, conduction of researches and information of the general public and the workers are some of the means that can be used to reduce the uncertainty and create trust. All these questions are raised in particular for fetus and pregnant women, for which more studies have to be conducted. Recently WHO has recommended the study on the EMF dosimetry relating with fetuses as high-priority research topics The estimation of the RF fetus exposure induced by new wireless communication is however highly complex since new technologies can be used in versatile ways and since the exposure depends on many parameters (usage, frequency, posture, age of fetus). Progress in computation technique can help to manage the problem but usual dosimetric approaches are not well adapted to handle such problems

    The exposure assessment of fetuses is facing 3 major challenges: The first challenge is the limited number of anatomically correct models (MRI based or Ultrasonic based) of mother and fetus that can be considered as reliable for the exposure assessment. The second challenge is the lack of tools that allow deforming the fetus and mother models in a correct anatomical way. The third challenge is the management of the complexity of this problem to assess the statistical distribution of the exposure and by this way the maximum exposure. 

    The ambitious objectives of the FETUS project are:

    • Develop new fetus models and new pregnant woman models based on Magnetic Resonance and Ultrasound images that can be used in numerical dosimetry
    • Develop new tools to deform models in order to create new postures taking into account the anatomical deformations of the fetus and maternal tissues encountered with new usages and new wireless technologies.
    • Assess the exposure (Specific Absorption Rate and rise of temperature) in different configurations and analyze the influence of parameters (e.g. posture, frequency).
    • Determine the uncertainty relative to the fetus exposure relative to variable configurations.

    The French and Japanese teams involved in this project have complementary experiences and skills that will be beneficial to achieve these goals.

    Using fetus and pregnant woman models, along with the proposed deformation tools the FETUS project will be able to assess the fetus and mother exposure in different configurations. The exposure linked to new usages and new technologies will be estimated and characterize in various configurations. By this way the project will help to manage the general public or workers exposure, provide answers to open questions and will contribute to the public acceptance of the new wireless systems.