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Occupational exposure to intermediate frequency and extremely low frequency magnetic fields among personnel working near electronic article surveillance systems.

Not an original health-effects study

Roivainen P, Eskelinen T, Jokela K, Juutilainen J · 2014

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Cashiers' exposure to intermediate frequency magnetic fields at their seats ranged from 0.2 to 4 µT, but ICNIRP reference levels were exceeded up to 189 µT when cashiers walked through EAS gates.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers measured intermediate frequency and extremely low frequency magnetic fields at cashiers' seats in Finnish stores. At the cashier's seat, IF magnetic fields ranged from 0.2 to 4 µT and ELF magnetic fields ranged from 0.03 to 4.5 µT, both well below exposure limits. However, when cashiers walked through EAS gates, peak IF fields reached up to 189 µT, exceeding the ICNIRP occupational reference level of 141 µT.

Why This Matters

The ICNIRP reference levels do not specify a minimum exposure duration, so the authors recommended further investigation to assess compliance with basic restrictions. Workers near EAS devices form an exceptional exposure group that could be used for future epidemiological studies on IF magnetic field health effects. The study compared two compliance methods and found the ICNIRP summation rule for multiple frequencies was generally more conservative, with a greater than 10-fold difference for 58 kHz systems with complex waveforms. The authors noted that the ICNIRP multiple frequency rule may be unnecessarily conservative for complex waveforms.

Exposure Details

Magnetic Field
0.0002 to 0.004 and 0.00003 to 0.0045 mT
Source/Device
50 Hz

Exposure Context

This study used 0.0002 to 0.004 and 0.00003 to 0.0045 mT for magnetic fields:

Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.

Where This Falls on the Concern Scale

Study Exposure Level in ContextStudy Exposure Level in ContextThis study: 0.0002 to 0.004 and 0.00003 to 0.0045 mTExtreme Concern - 5 mGFCC Limit - 2,000 mGEffects observed in the Slight Concern range (Building Biology)FCC limit is 6,667 times higher than this level
A logarithmic frequency spectrum from 10 Hz to 100 GHz showing where this study's 50 Hz exposure sits relative to common EMF sources.Where This Frequency Sits on the EMF SpectrumELFVLFLF / MFHF / VHFUHFSHFmm10 Hz100 GHzThis study: 50 HzCell phones~1 GHzWiFi2.4 GHz5G mm28 GHzLogarithmic scale

Study Details

Cashiers are potentially exposed to intermediate frequency (IF) magnetic fields at their workplaces because of the electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems used in stores to protect merchandise against theft. This study aimed at investigating occupational exposure of cashiers to IF magnetic fields in Finnish stores.

Exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields was also evaluated because cashiers work n...

The peak magnetic flux density was measured for IF magnetic fields, and was found to vary from 0.2 t...

Cite This Study
Roivainen P, Eskelinen T, Jokela K, Juutilainen J (2014). Occupational exposure to intermediate frequency and extremely low frequency magnetic fields among personnel working near electronic article surveillance systems. Bioelectromagnetics. 2014 Feb 24. doi: 10.1002/bem.21850.
Show BibTeX
@article{p_2014_occupational_exposure_to_intermediate_1296,
  author = {Roivainen P and Eskelinen T and Jokela K and Juutilainen J},
  title = {Occupational exposure to intermediate frequency and extremely low frequency magnetic fields among personnel working near electronic article surveillance systems.},
  year = {2014},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24615825/},
}
PubMed: 24615825

Cited By (22 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

At the cashier's seat, intermediate frequency magnetic fields ranged from 0.2 to 4 µT and extremely low frequency magnetic fields ranged from 0.03 to 4.5 µT.
When cashiers walked through EAS gates, peak IF fields reached up to 189 µT, exceeding the ICNIRP occupational reference level of 141 µT for short periods.
Because ICNIRP reference levels do not define a minimum exposure time, the authors recommended additional investigations to determine compliance with basic restrictions.
The ICNIRP summation rule for multiple frequencies was generally more conservative than broadband peak field measurement, with a greater than 10-fold difference for 58 kHz systems with complex waveforms.
ELF magnetic fields were evaluated because cashiers work near various devices operating with 50 Hz electric power.