Interaction of low-frequency electric and magnetic fields with the human body

Interactions of electric and magnetic fields at power line frequencies (50 and 60 Hz) in humans have been the subject of intensive scientific inquiry and considerable public concern during the last two decades. As a part of the scientific effort, extensive evaluations of induced electric field and current density in the human body have been performed. Realistic, heterogeneous, high-resolution models of the body have been analyzed using various numerical methods. Exposures to uniform and nonuniform electric and magnetic fields are considered, thus accounting for typical environmental and occupational scenarios. Numerical values of the average and maximum induced electric field and current density are given for various organs and tissues. Effects on the dosimetric measures of changes in the tissue conductivity, model resolution and organ modeling in situ, and isolation are discussed. It is shown that results from various laboratories agree reasonably well. It is also shown how the macroscopic numerical evaluation of induced fields can be further extended to model more refined cellular systems. This is demonstrated for gap junction connected cells.