Evaluation of Electromagnetic Measurements With Regard to Human Exposure Standards.

Abstract

The effects of radio frequency (RF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields can produce biological effects that can be harmful to human health. Both thermal and field effects are possible. This report estimates the effects of human exposure to electromagnetic fields in four frequency regimes: 60 Hz. (high voltage power lines), 28 KHz. (very low frequency (VLF) communication systems extendible to 10-30 MHz range), and 900 MHz (cellular communication systems). An outline of the approach needed to analyze the 70-144 MHz communication range is given but no results were generated in this effort. The known thermal and non-thermal effects are reviewed. Hazardous exposure situations are investigated including epidemiological studies, laboratory exposure to animals and in vitro studies at the cellular level. Guidelines are suggested for the ELF, VLF and cellular telephone frequencies. The scaling of measurements is discussed along with approximate analytical results. Health standards are presented, and conclusions and recommendations are given. The report also includes an extensive bibliography. Appendix A has an evaluation of government furnished field measurements with regard to IEEE and ANSI standards. Appendix B contains one preprint and three preprints of papers supported by or related to this work.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA355148

Entities

People

  • Sheldon S. Sandler

Organizations

  • Northeastern University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cells
  • Communication Systems
  • Dielectric Permittivity
  • Electric Current
  • Electric Fields
  • Electricity
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Extremely Low Frequency
  • Far Field
  • High Voltage
  • Lymphatic System
  • Lymphocytes
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Medical Personnel
  • Radio Frequency
  • Voltage

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Radio communications and signal processing.