Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, 0–3 kHz
|Publication Date:||12 September 2002|
In 1960, the American Standards Association approved the initiation of the Radiation Hazards Standards project under the co-sponsorship of the Department of the Navy and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Prior to 1988, C95 standards were developed by accredited standards committee C95 and submitted to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for approval and issuance as ANSI C95 standards. Between 1988 and 1990, the committee was converted to Standards Coordinating Committee 28 under sponsorship of the IEEE Standards Board, and in 2001, became also known as the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES). In accordance with policies of the IEEE, C95 standards will be issued and developed as IEEE standards, as well as being submitted to ANSI for recognition.
The present scope of ICES is:
"Development of standards for the safe use of electromagnetic energy in the range of 0 Hz-300 GHz relative to the potential hazards due to exposure of such energy to man, volatile materials, and explosive devices. The committee will coordinate with other committees whose scopes are contiguous with ICES."
ICES is responsible for this standard. There are five subcommittees concerned with:
I Techniques, Procedures, Instrumentation, and Computation,
II Terminology, Units of Measurements, and Hazard Communication,
III Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure, 0-3 kHz,
IV Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure, 3 kHz-300 GHz,
V Safety Levels with Respect to Electro-Explosive Devices.
Two standards, two guides, and three recommended practices have been issued. Current versions are:
IEEE Std C95.1™-1999 Edition, IEEE Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, 3 kHz-300 GHz (Replaces IEEE Std C95.1-1991).
IEEE Std C95.2™-1999, IEEE Standard for Radio Frequency Energy and Current Flow Symbols (Replaces ANSI C95.2).
IEEE Std C95.3™-1991 (Reaff 1997), IEEE Recommended Practice for the Measurement of Potentially Hazardous Electromagnetic Fields-RF and Microwave (Replaces ANSI C95.3-1973 and ANSI C95.1-1981).
ANSI C95.5-1981, American National Standard Recommended Practice for the Measurement of Hazardous Electromagnetic Fields-RF and Microwave.
IEEE Std 1460™-1996, IEEE Guide for the Measurement of Quasi-Static Magnetic and Electric Fields.
ANSI C95.4-1978, American National Standard Safety Guide for the Prevention of Radio-Frequency Radiation Hazards in the Use of Electric Blasting Caps.
This standard was developed by an ICES Subcommittee 3 (SC 3) formed in 1991 to address the frequency range from 0-3 kHz (SC 3). In the early years, the subcommittee discussed the science relating to both long- term and short-term exposures and concluded that the effects of long-term (chronic) exposure were not convincingly established as were effects of short-term exposures.
This standard defines exposure levels to protect against adverse effects in humans from exposure to electric and magnetic fields at frequencies from 0-3 kHz. This standard was developed with respect to established mechanisms of biological effects in humans from electric and magnetic field exposures. It does not apply to exposures encountered during medical procedures. The defined exposure limits do not necessarily protect against interference of medical devices or problems involving metallic implants (see 6.12).
Established human mechanisms fall within the category of short-term effects. Such effects are understood in terms of recognized interaction mechanisms. Exposure limits defined in this standard are not based on the potential effects of long-term exposure because:
a) There is not sufficient, reliable evidence to conclude that long-term exposures to electric and magnetic fields at levels found in communities or occupational environments are adverse to human health or cause a disease, including cancer.
b) There is no confirmed mechanism that would provide a firm basis to predict adverse effects from low-level, long-term exposure.
The Subcommittee is aware of reported epidemiological associations between long-term exposure to magnetic fields and disease, including childhood leukemia in residential environments and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in occupational environments. The interpretation of these associations is unclear, especially since exposure to magnetic fields does not appear to initiate or advance the development of leukemia or other forms of cancers and other diseases in animals exposed over much of their lifetime. This is consistent with the findings of interdisciplinary panels of scientists that have evaluated the literature on longterm exposures for scientific and governmental organizations. The most recent of these major reviews include the Advisory Group on Non-Ionizing Radiation of the UK National Radiological Protection Board (AGNIR [B3]1), the Health Council of the Netherlands (Netherlands [B63]), the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS [B64]; Olden [B68]), the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE [B45]), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC [B42]), the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) [B43], and the U. S. National Research Council (NRC [B65]).
Because none of the above reviews concluded that any hazard from long-term exposure has been confirmed, this standard does not propose limits on exposures that are lower than those necessary to protect against adverse short-term effects. The Subcommittee will continue to evaluate new research and will revise this standard should the resolution of present uncertainties in the research literature identify a need to limit long-term exposures to values lower than the limits of this standard. The Subcommittee will also continue to evaluate new research on short-term effects and modeling. As stated below, this standard makes reasonable assumptions based upon available data. As new data becomes available, the committee will revisit these assumptions for future revisions.