• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.381-392
• /
• 2022

Objectives: Objective of this study is to review briefly exposure characteristics, monitoring instruments and threshold limit values for extremely low frequency-magnetic field (ELF-MF) methods. This study was undertaken through brief literature review. We performed a literature search in PubMed to identify ELF-MF studies conducted in workplaces. Initial search keywords such as 'extremely low frequency-magnetic field (ELF-MF)' and 'electromagnetic fields (EMF)' combined or singly. We limited our review to occupational rather than general nonworkplace environmental exposures. Methods: The contents we reviewed: key industry and occupations generating ELF-MF, several direct-reading instruments monitoring ELF-MF and threshold limit values (TLV) preventing health effects may be caused by the exposure to ELF-MF. Results: The industries related to the generation and supply of electricity, electrolytic installations, welding, and induction heating and more were regarded as high ELF-MF exposure industries. All jobs handling or employed performed in power cable lines, electrical wiring, and electrical equipment are found to be exposed to ELF-MF. Threshold or ceiling limit, 1,000 µT, is established to prevent acute effects of exposure to low-frequency EMFs on the nervous system: the direct stimulation of nerve and muscle tissues and the induction of retinal phosphenes. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified ELF-MF as possibly carcinogenic to humans chiefly based on epidemiological studies on childhood leukemia. However, a causal relationship between magnetic fields and several types of cancer including childhood leukemia has not been established nor has any other long-term effects. Risk management using precautionary measures, has been initiated by the US and EU to prevent chronic health effects related to ELF-MF exposure in workplaces. Conclusion: This study recommends the implementation of various measures such as theestablishment of occupational exposure limit values for ELF-MF and precautionary principle to prevent potential chronic occupational health effects may be caused by ELF-MF in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.220-227
• /
• 2005

Recently, the use of an electrical apparatus has brought up concerns of health risks from exposure to electromagnetic fields. EMF is composed of electric fields and magnetic fields. Heavy exposure to EMF can occur only in the vicinity of high-voltage overhead transmission lines, close to transformers and underground cables, and also close to large electrical machinery. In this thesis I have investigated the hypothesis of the correlation between occupational exposure to ELF-EMF and the risks of leukemia, anemia, cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate whether or not ELF-EMF emitted from electric power stations and transformer substations affect some hematological parameters and tumor markers of electric utility workers. The hematological test results and tumor markers under investigation were similar in the two groups but some of parameters such as RBC, AFP, LDH showed significant difference between the two groups from two sample t-test (p<0.05). The exposure group showed increased LDH level compared to the control group by two sample t-tests. In addition, the abnormal LDH level in the exposure group was observed to be clinically significant by ${\chi}^2$-test. However, the levels of RBC, AFP observed were not clinically significant by ${\chi}^2$-test (p>0.05). These results suggested that ELF-EMF does not affect most blood test parameters except LDH of electric utility workers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society Conference
• /
• 1999.07a
• /
• pp.173-186
• /
• 1999

Several epidemiological studies have suggested that residential or occupational exposure to power frequency magnetic fields (MF) might increase the risk of cancer. The objective of this study is to elucidate the possible carcinogenic effects of MF exposure using female Sprague-Dawley (Crj:CD)rats. A total of 360rats was randomly divided into 6 groups of 60 rats each. Two groups were served as a negative control (vehicle: sesame oil only) or a positive control (single oral administration of 7, 12dimethylbenz(a)anthracene; DMBA, 90mg/kg body weight at 50-52days of age). Other four groups were simultaneously exposed to 0 (sham-exposed) 7, 70 or 350 $\mu$T(rms), continuous circularly polarized 50HzMF, 22 hrs/day, 7 days/weeks for 30weeks from 8weeks of age. Experiment was conducted under SPF condition and in a blinded manner, Ten animals in each grout were served as satellite animals and their several hormonal concentrations in sera, such as melatonin and prolactin, collected at the midnight were measured. In addition, complete histopathological examination were performed in other 50 animals per each group. In the positive control group, the first mammary nodule was palpated at the 7th weeks of experiment in 5 out of 59 animals. Afterward, the incidence of palpable mammary nodules increased steadily and reached at 76% and 98% of live animals at 14weeks and the end of experiment in sham and 350$\mu$ T-exposed groups were not significantly different from those in the sham-exposed and negative control groups. Histopathologocally, most of palpable nodules were mammary tumors. The incidences of animals with mammary tumors per animals survived ant the end of experiment were 4.1 and 100% in the negative and positive control groups, and 0.0, 6.0, 8.0 and 6.0% in the sham-, 7, 70and 350 $\mu$T-exposed groups, respectively. These incidences in three MF-exposed groups were not significantly different from those in both the sham- exposed and negative control groups. Based on these results, it was not supported that continuous circularly polarized 50 Hz magnetic fields at up to 350$\mu$T affect the incidence of spontaneous mammary tumors in female SD rats under the present experimental conditions.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.148-154
• /
• 2015

Reports show that global system for mobile communication (GSM) mobile phones, or two-generation (2G) mobile phones, could affect functions of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). In this study, we evaluated the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) mobile phones, which were third-generation (3G) mobile phones, on pacemakers and ICDs. Five pacemakers and three ICDs were subjected to in-vitro test using a ECG simulator. We used a WCDMA module (average power : 0.25 W, frequency band : 1950 MHz) instead of a real WCDMA mobile phone. To assess the effects of the WCDMA module on pacemakers and ICDs, each implantable device was placed in close proximity (within 3 mm) to the WCDMA module for 5 min. As a result, no effects were observed on the five pacemakers and three ICDs for the RF-EMFs emitted by the WCDMA module. Because WCDMA mobile phones have the higher frequency band (1800-2200 MHz) and lower power output (0.01-0.25 W) than GSM moboile phone, the RF-EMFs emitted by WCDMA mobile phones do not affect patients with pacemaker or ICD.

• The Proceeding of the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.64-70
• /
• 1994

the magnetic field homogeneities of the induction coils of various sizes and shapes were investigated in order to prepare for the magnetic field immunity test under the power frequency, the pulse and the damed oscillatory fields recommended by the IEC. For this purpose, we analyzed the magnetic field homogeneities in the two induction coils with $1m\times1m$, and $1m\times2.6m$, , and the double square coils with 0.8m and 0.6m spaced. The testing volume within $\pm$3dB in the double square coil with 0.8m spaced in twice bigger than single square coil with 1m side in the z-direction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.509-517
• /
• 2014

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the patterns of exposure of welders to strong magnetic fields for extended periods of time on the basis of their daily activities as recorded in a logbook. Methods: Male workers whose main job is welding, specifically seven welders occupied with gas tungsten arc welding(GTAW), two performing shielded metal arc welding(SMAW), and ten engaged in gas metal arc welding(GMAW), were measured in terms of the degree to which they were exposed to extremely low frequency(ELF) magnetic fields over 24 hours by using an electromagnetic field meter(EMF meter), as well as based on a daily activity log. Results: The welders were exposed to $1.25{\pm}4.95{\mu}T$ of magnetic field per day on average. For those who spent more than half a day-735.26 minutes, or 51.1% of the day-at work, the figure averages $3.88{\pm}8.85{\mu}T$ with a maximum value of $221.28{\mu}T$. The subject welders spent $338.14{\pm}154.95$ minutes per day at home. During their stays at home, they were exposed to an average of $0.17{\pm}0.06{\mu}T$ with a maximum value of $3.50{\mu}T$. The maximum exposure of $221.28{\mu}T$ occurred when welders performed GMAW. The average exposure reached its highest at $17.71{\pm}6.96{\mu}T$ when conducting SMAW. Magnetic field exposure also depends upon posture: welders who sat while welding were exposed five times more than those who stood during work, and this difference is statistically significant. As for the relationship between distance from the welding power supply and maximum magnetic field exposure, maximum magnetic field exposure decreases as the distance increases. The average magnetic field exposure, in the meantime, showed no significant difference depending on distance. Conclusions: The following were observed through this study: 1) welders, while conducting jobs, are exposed to magnetic fields not only from the welding machine, but also from the surrounding base material due to the current flowing between the welding machine and base material, meaning that they are continuously exposed to a magnetic field; and 2) welders are more exposed to magnetic fields while they sit at a job compared to when they stand up.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.275-283
• /
• 2002

To detect the position and depth of buried underground utilities, method of Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) survey is the most commonly used. However, the skin-depth of GPR is very shallow, and in the places where subsurface materials are not homogeneous and are compose of clays and/or salts and gravels, GPR method has limitations in application and interpretation. The aim of this study is to overcome these limitations of GPR survey. For this purpose the site where the GPR survey is unsuccessful to detect the underground big pipes is selected, and soil tests were conducted to confirm the reason why GPR method was not applicable. Non-destructive high-frequency electromagnetic (HFEM) survey was newly developed and was applied in the study area to prove the effectiveness of this new technique. The frequency ranges $2kHz{\sim}4MHz$ and the skin depth is about 30m. The HFEM measures the electric field and magnetic field perpendicular to each other to get the impedance from which vertical electric resistivity distribution at the measured point can be deduced. By adopting the capacitive coupled electrodes, it can make the measuring time shorter, and can be applied to the places covered by asphalt an and/or concrete. In addition to the above mentioned advantages, noise due to high-voltage power line is much reduced by stacking the signals. As a result, the HFEM was successful in detecting the buried underground objects. Therefore this method is a promising new technique that can be applied in the lots of fields, such as geotechnical and archaeological surveys.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.255-261
• /
• 2005

Recently, the RF inductive discharge or inductively coupled plasma continues to attract growing attention as an effective plasma source in many industrial applications, the best known of which are plasma processing and lighting technology. To the point of lighting sources, the ring-shaped electrodeless fluorescent lamps utilizing an inductively coupled plasma have been objects of interest and research during the last decades, mainly because of their potential for extremely long life, high lamp efficacies, rapid power switching response. In this paper, maxwell 3D finite element analysis program (Ansoft) was used to obtain electromagnetic properties associated with the coil and nearby structures. The electromagnetic emitting properties were presented by 3D simulation software operated at 250 kHz and some specific conditions. The electromagnetic field in the ferrite core was shown to be high and symmetric. An LS-100 luminance meter and a Darsa-2000 spectrum analyzer were used in the experiment. According to data on the lamp tested using high magnetic field ferrite, the optical and thermal wave fields were shown to be high around the ring-shaped electrodeless fluorescent lamp. The optical or light field was high at the center of the bulb rather than around the ferrite core. The light conditions of the bulb were assumed to be complex, depending on the condition of the filler gas, the volume of the bulb, and the frequency of the inverter. Our results have shown coupling between the gas plasma and the field of the light emitted to be nonlinear.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2005.05a
• /
• pp.273-280
• /
• 2005

Robust magneto-telluric (MT) response function estimators are now in standard use in electromagnetic induction research. Properly devised and applied, these methods can reduce the influence of unusual data (outlier) in the response (electric field) variable, but often not sensitive to exceptional predictor (magnetic field) data, which are termed leverage points. A bounded influence estimator is described which simultaneously limits the influence of both outlier and leverage point, and has proven to consistently yield more reliable MT response function estimates than conventional robust approach. The bounded influence estimator combines a standard robust M-estimator with leverage weighting based on the statistics of the hat matrix diagonal, which is a standard statistical measure of unusual predictors. Further extensions to MT data analysis are proposed, including a establishment of data rejection criterion which minimize the influence of both electric and magnetic outlier in frequency domain based on statistical distribution of electromagnetic field. The rejection scheme made in this study seems to have an effective performance on eliminating extreme data, which is even not removed by BI estimator, in frequency domain. The effectiveness and advantage of these developments are illustrated using real MT data.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2017

The applications of high-frequency induction heating has recently been studied in various industrial fields. In this study, induction heating is applied to a SCM440 specimen that is widely used in industry. The specimen was made up of a cylinder 20 mm in diameter and 160 mm long. An induction heating power supply module was used to generate heat in the cylinder at a high frequency (approximately 85 kHz) for 50 seconds. The temperature of the specimen was measured at the 150 mm length in 5 second intervals. Results such as joule heat and temperature are compared with the numerical model analysis using an electromagnetic-thermal co-simulation technique. The analytical model of the cylinder was modeled by considering the skin effect. The median measured temperature after induction heating was conducted for 50 seconds was $57.65^{\circ}C$, compared to a predicted analytical value of $57.27^{\circ}C$. Thus, the analytical results are in good agreement with the experimental results, and this model can predict the induction heating phenomenon numerically.