Review of the engineering situation-compliance with exposure guidelines

National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) guidelines provide the information necessary for industry to ensure that equipment which produces electromagnetic fields does not expose people to fields of sufficient strength to give rise to established biological effects. At present, this is all that current scientific knowledge allows to be done to demonstrably protect people from the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation. NRPB guidelines do not state how measurements or calculations should be performed to demonstrate compliance as there are so many different sources, all of which require different approaches. Basic restrictions are given in terms of current density and specific absorption rate within the body tissues since these are the dose quantities which are related to the established biological effects. The guidelines also give investigation levels in terms of external field strength which can be used, possibly with measurements, to assess compliance, but they also allow recourse to the basic restrictions