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 t he scientific effort, extensive evaluations of induced electric field nnd c urrent density in the human body have been performance. Realistic, heteroge neous, high-resolution models of the body have been analyzed using various numerical methods. Exposures to uniform and nonuniform electric and magneti c fields are considered, thus accounting for typical environmental and occu pational scenarios. Numerical values of the aver-age and maximum induced el ectric field and current density are given for various organs and tissues. Effects on the dosimetric measures of changes in the tissue conductivity; m odel resolution and organ modeling in situ, and isolation are discussed. Ir is shown that results from various laboratories agree reasonably well. It is also shown how the macroscopic numerical evaluation of induced fields ca n be further extended to model more refined cellular system. This is demons trated for gap junction connected cells.