Occupational exposure to electric and magnetic fields while working at switching and transforming stations of 110 kV.

The aim of the study was to measure occupational exposure to electric and magnetic fields during various work tasks at switching and transforming stations of 110 kV (in some situations 20 kV), and analyze if the action values of European Union Directive 2004/40/EC or reference values of International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) were exceeded. The electric (n = 765) and magnetic (n = 203) fields were measured during various work tasks. The average values of all measurements were 3.6 kV m(-1) and 28.6 μT. The maximum value of electric fields was 15.5 kV m(-1) at task 'maintenance of operating device of circuit breaker from service platform'. In one special work task close to shunt reactor cables (20 kV), the highest magnetic field was 710 μT. In general, the measured magnetic fields were below the reference values of ICNIRP.