Germany has a draft regulation, BGV B11, for worker limits. It adopts the ICNIRP worker limits. Once this standard is adopted, it will be mandatory for employers.
Germany's VFG 306:1997 has legal requirements for public exposure to frequencies above 3 kHz. Italy is working on legislation on EMF; however, the biggest concerns are with 50 Hz power systems, broadcast transmitters and wireless phones. Germany, Switzerland and Italy have legal limits for 50 Hz power systems; otherwise, there appears to be a few "voluntary" guidelines for the lower frequencies which I have listed below. In the USA, OSHA uses the voluntary ACGIH guidelines; however, I was told that being over the limit does not necessarily mean there is a workplace hazard. ACGIH = American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. ICNIRP published their 1998 guidelines. It has public and worker limits. You may be able to find this document on their web site. It was published in Health Physics. These limits are considered by many to be the state-of-the-art. The EU Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC recommended member states adopt the ICNIRP public limits. Worker limits are up to the states to determine. This document may also be on line. Germany has VDE 0848-4:1989, but that is considered to be very old science. You can get an English translation from BSI. Draft VDE0848-3-1:1999 has limits for persons with implanted medical devices The Health Council of The Netherlands has recommendations for frequencies above 300 Hz. Canada's Safety Code 6 applies above 3 kHz The NRPB (National Radiological Protection Board) in the UK has issued recommendations in Volume 4 No. 5:1993. Richard Woods ---------- From: Michael Gusel [SMTP:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 12:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: ELF EMC limits Hi group, I appreciate your help in finding sources of information for standards and limits for human exposure to Extremely Low Frequency EM Fields ____________________________________________________________________ Michael Gusel Datascope Corp. Tel: 201-995-8362 800 MacArthur Blvd. Fax: 201-995-8614 Mahwah, NJ 07430 E-mail: [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Jim Bacher: [email protected] Michael Garretson: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Jim Bacher: [email protected] Michael Garretson: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected]
