Home Appliances & Consumer Electronics
Characteristics of Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)
Home electrical appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, hair driers or TV sets are connected to outlets and get power supplied with extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) of 50 Hz or 60 Hz (Hertz). The motors, monitors, transformers or other electrical components of the home appliances can generate electromagnetic fields with intermediate frequency (IF-EMF) which may be in the range of several kilohertz to several hundred kHz* (kilohertz).
* 1kHz = 1,000 Hz
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Adverse Health Effects
When the human body is exposed to intermediate frequency electromagnetic fields (IM-EMF) generated by home appliances, it is possible that electric currents can be induced within the human tissues. In the case when human organism is exposed to IM-EMF with frequencies hundreds and thousand times larger than in the common environment, some changes could be initiated in the muscle and nerve activity, and in some cases even the cardiac activity could be provoked.
A continuous exposure to very high frequency electromagnetic fields may have a thermal effect leading to the rise in body temperature. Fortunately, it is not very likely that individual could be continuously exposed to very high frequency electromagnetic fields in the common working and living environment. Especially, the EMF generated by home appliances, are with relatively low power and thereby even a small distance from the source (motor, monitor) will prevent occurrence of health hazard effects.
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Regulations
There are no regulations regarding health effects caused by EMFs generated by electrical appliances.
Information on the regulations on microwave ovens is available in the section IH Stoves and Microwave Ovens.
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