Effect of ELF fields on Public Health Case Study (220 and 400 KV lines)

Abstract

For the last two decades there has been a lot of concern about the possible effects of Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields on human health. Many studies have been done by many organizations all over the world to investigate the possible effects of these fields and a number of standards have been developed by some organizations such as the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as well as many other international bodies. Most of the studies concluded that the risk of exposure to these field is very weak especially the correlation between exposure to these fields and diseases such as cancer. This paper presents the results of field measurements that have been done on selected high voltage lines in some areas of Libya so to measure the ELF electric and magnetic field strengths associated with these lines and check the obtained results against the standard levels set by the ICNIRP. The obtained results in general were well below the standard set limits.