Occupational exposure to intermediate frequency and extremely low frequency magnetic fields among personnel working near electronic article surveillance systems.

Cashiers are potentially exposed to intermediate frequency (IF) magnetic fields at their workplaces because of the electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems used in stores to protect merchandise against theft. This study aimed at investigating occupational exposure of cashiers to IF magnetic fields in Finnish stores. Exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields was also evaluated because cashiers work near various devices operating with 50 Hz electric power. The peak magnetic flux density was measured for IF magnetic fields, and was found to vary from 0.2 to 4 µT at the cashier's seat. ELF magnetic fields from 0.03 to 4.5 µT were found at the cashier's seat. These values are much lower than exposure limits. However, according to the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) occupational reference levels for IF magnetic fields (141 µT for the peak field) were exceeded in some cases (maximum 189 µT) for short periods of time when cashiers walked through the EAS gates. As the ICNIRP reference levels do not define any minimum time for exposure, additional investigations are recommended to determine compliance with basic restrictions. Even if the basic restrictions are not exceeded, persons working near EAS devices represent an exceptional group of workers with respect to exposure to electromagnetic fields. This group could serve as a basis for epidemiological studies addressing possible health effects of IF magnetic fields. Compliance with the reference levels for IF fields was evaluated using both broadband measurement of peak fields and the ICNIRP summation rule for multiple frequencies. The latter was generally more conservative, and the difference between the two methods was large (>10-fold) for EAS systems using a 58 kHz signal with complex waveform. This indicates that the ICNIRP multiple frequency rule can be unnecessarily conservative when measuring complex waveforms.