Dosimetric Assessment of Simultaneous Exposure to ELF Electric and Magnetic Fields

In the low-frequency range, both electric and magnetic fields interact with biological tissue by inducing intracorporal electric current densities, although ruled by different physical laws and, hence, with different intracorporal orientation and pathways. Presently, standards require a separate ass...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2008-02, Vol.55 (2), p.671-674
Main Authors: Leitgeb, Norbert, Cech, Roman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assessments
Basic restrictions
Biological tissues
Body Burden
Central nervous system
Computer Simulation
Constrictions
Current density
Density
dosimetry
Electric current
Electricity
Electromagnetic Fields
Environmental Exposure - analysis
Fetus
Geophysical measurement techniques
Ground penetrating radar
health risk assessment
Humans
Lead
Magnetic fields
Mathematical models
Models, Biological
Nervous system
Numerical simulation
Protection
reference levels
Relative Biological Effectiveness
Studies
Whole-Body Counting - methods
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Description
Summary:In the low-frequency range, both electric and magnetic fields interact with biological tissue by inducing intracorporal electric current densities, although ruled by different physical laws and, hence, with different intracorporal orientation and pathways. Presently, standards require a separate assessment of electric and magnetic fields even in the case of simultaneous exposure and, hence, ignore the superposition of intracorporal current densities. Numerical simulations with the Visible Man model show that this can lead to underestimating current densities in the central nervous system (CNS) by up to 29%. While the superposed electric current densities in the CNS still meet the basic restrictions, the situation changes if a fetus with its own CNS requires the same level of protection. When the compliance volume is extended to the trunk, the reference-level electric-field exposure exceeds the basic restrictions by 38%. Depending on the kind of summation of the vectorial contributions, simultaneous exposure to the 50 Hz-5 kV/m electric field and 100-T magnetic field may lead to a 2.1-fold to 2.6-fold excess of the basic restriction. While this does not prove noncompliance, it indicates that fetal CNS exposure modeling is needed for clarification.
ISSN:0018-9294
1558-2531
DOI:10.1109/TBME.2007.901023