Trends in Regulation of Low Frequency Magnetic Field in Railway System
(2013)Abstract
Over 30 years, health effects of Electric and Magnetic Field (EMF) have been concerned
especially in power frequency and mobile telephony. Then, the World Health Organization
reviewed scientific evidences and published their monograph (Environmental Health Criteria
No. 232 in static field and No. 238 in low frequency field.) and recommended to imply
international guideline for limiting exposure to protect people from acute effects.
Following this, various responsesare seen in the world. In EU, EU adopted the ICNIRP
guideline and the EU recommendation for general public was released and EU directive for
workers have been discussed. Then, each EU member countries and other countries such as
Korea, Israel, etc. have their own implementation.
In Japan, the regulations of MF for protection of general public from short term health
effects such as nerve stimulation were enforced for electric utility company and railway
operator recently. Power frequency (50Hz or 60Hz in Japan) MF emitted from Substation,
transformer, power line, etc. was the target of these regulations. In this paper, summary of the
regulations, its background and future tasks are discussed
