All pregnant working women should be protected by EMF public limit standards

All pregnant working women should be protected by EMF public limit standards

Joel's comments: Bruce Hocking in his letter to the editor of Bioelectromagnetics makes an important point: All working women who are pregnant should be protected by the more stringent EMF public limits as the fetus is not a worker. The fetus should not be exposed to the levels of EMF allowable under the more permissive occupational EMF limits.

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Comments on “Dosimetric study of fetal exposure to uniform magnetic fields at 50 Hz” by Liorni et al

Bruce Hocking. Letter to the Editor. Comments on “Dosimetric study of fetal exposure to uniform magnetic fields at 50 Hz” by Liorni et al. Bioelectromagnetics. Mar 12, 2015.

No Abstract

Excerpts

Liorni et al. [2014] provide information, based on modelling, that exposure of the pregnant woman to 50 Hz magnetic fields within International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) public exposure limits also meets basic restrictions within the fetus [ICNIRP, 1998, 2010]. Some comments are warranted before concluding ICNIRP guidelines provide safety for the fetus ...

The authors compare induced current density (RMS Jpeak) in the fetal CNS resulting from maternal exposures at the public exposure limit of 100 μT based on ICNIRP [1998] basic restriction of 2 mA/m² for public exposures. They found maximum induced current density in the CNS of 0.46 mA/m² at seven months and 0.49 mA/m² at 9 months (Table 8). However, occupational limits would permit a mother who works in 50 Hz fields to be exposed to five times this level resulting in current density within the fetus in excess of 2 mA/m². The fetus is not a worker and is entitled to be accorded the safety of a member of the public. The authors' paper reinforces the need for all pregnant women to have exposure reduced to below public limits and the issue of occupational exposure must be addressed by ICNIRP.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bem.21905/full
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Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Electromagnetic Radiation Safety

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