Directive 2004/40/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

B. ACTION VALUES

The action values referred to in Table 2 are obtained from the exposure limit values according to the rationale used by the International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) in its guidelines on limiting exposure to non-ionising radiation (ICNIRP 7/99).

Table 2: Action values (Article 3(2)) (unperturbed rms values)

Frequency range	Electric field strength, E (V/m)	Magnetic field strength, H (A/m)	Magnetic flux density, B (µT)	Equivalent plane wave power density, Seq (W/m2)	Contact current, Ic (mA)	Limb induced current, IL (mA)
0 – 1Hz	–	1,63x105	2x105	–	1,0	–
1 – 8 Hz	20000	1,63x105/f2	2x105/f2	–	1,0	–
8 – 25 Hz	20000	2x104/f	2,5x104/f	–	1,0	–
0,025 – 0,82kHz	500/f	20/f	25/f	–	1,0	–
0,82 – 2,5 kHz.	610	24,4	30,7	–	1,0	–
2,5 – 65 kHz	610	24,4	30,7	–	0,4 f	–
65 – 100 kHz	610	1600/f	2000/f	–	0,4 f	–
0,1 – 1 MHz	610	1,6/f	2/f	–	40	–
1 – 10 MHz	610/f	1,6/f	2/f	–	40	–
10 – 110 MHz	61	0,16	0,2	10	40	100
110 – 400 MHz	61	0,16	0,2	10	–	–
400 – 2000 MHz	3f½	0,008f½	0,01f½	f/40	–	–
2 – 300 GHz	137	0,36	0,45	50	–	–

Notes:

1. f is the frequency in the units indicated in the frequency range column.

2. For frequencies between 100 kHz and 10 GHz, S_eq, E², H², B² and I_L ² are to be averaged over any six-minute period.

3. For frequencies exceeding 10 GHz, S_eq, E², H² and B² are to be averaged over any 68/f^1.05-minute period (f in GHz).

4. For frequencies up to 100 kHz, peak action values for the field strengths can be obtained by multiplying the rms value by (2)½. For pulses of duration t_p, the equivalent frequency to apply for the action values should be calculated as f=l/(2t_p).

For frequencies between 100 kHz and 10 MHz, peak action values for the field strengths are calculated by multiplying the relevant rms values by 10^a, where a = (0,665 log (f/10⁵) + 0,176), f in Hz.

For frequencies between 10 MHz and 300 GHz, peak action values are calculated by multiplying the corresponding rms values by 32 for the field strengths and by 1000 for the equivalent plane wave power density.

5. With regard to pulsed or transient electromagnetic fields, or generally with regard to simultaneous exposure to multiple frequency fields, appropriate methods of assessment, measurement and/or calculation capable of analysing the characteristics of the waveforms and nature of biological interactions have to be applied, taking account of harmonised European standards developed by CENELEC.

6. For peak values of pulsed modulated electromagnetic fields, it is also suggested that, for carrier frequencies exceeding 10 MHz, S_eq as averaged over the pulse width should not exceed 1 000 times the S_eq action values or that the field strength should not exceed 32 times the field strength action values for the carrier frequency.