Legislation

As far as regulations on protecting the general population from electromagnetic fields are concerned, the situation in Europe is not homogeneous.

A first distinction is made between states that have chosen to issue specific guidelines and recommendations and those that have adopted legislative instruments such as laws and decrees. A second distinction can be made between states that follow the guidelines issued by ICNIRP and those that follow different standards. In fact, some nations do not follow the ICNIRP guidelines and impose stricter regulatory limits.

The Russian federation imposes a limit of 10 μT for the general population and 100 μT limited to magnetic fields at a frequency of 50 Hz. In Poland the limit for the general population is 48 μT while the limit for workers is 160 μT (50Hz). Other nations have specific limits [see documents 1-2-3].

For example, in Switzerland, ICNIRP reference levels are applied to protect against proven adverse health effects: they must be respected in all places accessible to people. In addition, Switzerland has prior emission limitations — called installation limit values (ILVs) — for sensitive occupation sites (e.g., apartments, schools, hospitals, permanent workplaces, playgrounds).

For power supply lines, transformer stations, electrical substations and railways, the ILV is 1 μT, and thus any new installation must not cause magnetic induction values to rise more than 1 μT above the value present before the electrical infrastructure was installed.