Calculator standards compared: what each option implements

Last reviewed: 20 October 2026

The short answer: the calculator never merges bands into one score — each frequency band is compared against the reference level you pick for it, and most of those published figures trace to a small set of frameworks: the ICNIRP 2010 low-frequency guidelines, the ICNIRP 2020 RF guidelines, the US FCC's RF limits and the ICRP's ionizing-dose limits. One group of options is different: strict power-frequency figures in the 0.15–0.5 µT range are the site's own precautionary planning figures — anchored to published epidemiology, but not compliance limits published by the bodies they are named after. This page maps every option to the framework above it, with dated sources.

The options that implement published reference levels

Where the published RF figures agree — and where they don't

All three RF options read 10 W/m² because, at the calculator's RF band (1.5–300 GHz), the frameworks coincide: ICNIRP 2020 publishes 10 W/m² for the public above 2 GHz (Table 5), the FCC's 1 mW/cm² applies above 1,500 MHz, and ARPANSA's standard aligns with the ICNIRP figure. Below those frequencies the band structures differ: the FCC scales its public limit as f/150 W/m² from 300 MHz while ICNIRP 2020 scales as f/200 W/m² from 400 MHz, so ICNIRP is the stricter of the two across that middle band — about 4.5 versus 6 W/m² at 900 MHz (FCC, 1997; ICNIRP, 2020). The calculator shows which authority's figure it is using for exactly this reason.

The precautionary power-frequency options (0.15–0.5 µT)

A second group of power-frequency options sits three orders of magnitude below the ICNIRP 200 µT level: Swedish Pediatric (0.15 µT), EU Residential (0.2 µT), NIEHS Guidelines (0.3 µT), WHO Precautionary (0.4 µT), ARPANSA Public (0.5 µT), and the default Blended Average (0.35 µT), which the calculator labels as the site's own blend of those figures. None of these is a compliance limit published by the named bodies: they are precautionary planning figures, anchored to the epidemiological band — long-term average magnetic fields above roughly 0.3–0.4 µT, the level at which childhood-leukaemia risk was statistically associated and classified a hazard by IARC in 2002 (IARC Monographs Vol. 80, 2002; WHO, Environmental Health Criteria 238, 2007). What that association is and is not is covered on our IARC Group 2B page; why the ICNIRP limit and this band differ by three orders of magnitude is on the ICNIRP 2010 page. One label deserves its own note: the EU's binding recommendation (1999/519/EC) actually follows ICNIRP's 100 µT public reference level at 50 Hz — the calculator's 0.2 µT "EU Residential" option is a planning figure in the spirit of member-state precautionary policies, not that recommendation (Council of the European Union, 1999).

The composite and planning bands: static and MF

Two bands use figures that are neither published reference levels nor the epidemiology band. The static band's "WHO DC Standard" (1,000 µT) is a composite planning figure — an artificial-source budget layered over Earth's natural geomagnetic field, about 45 µT at mid-latitudes. It is deliberately conservative: ICNIRP's dedicated static-field guidance sets its public ceiling hundreds of times higher (400 mT), because a static field does not induce the tissue currents that time-varying fields stimulate (ICNIRP, 2014). The medium-frequency band (300 kHz–30 MHz, broadcast and industrial territory) compares power density — 0.92 W/m² public, 4.6 W/m² industrial and 2.3 W/m² medical options. ICNIRP 2020 deliberately publishes no power-density reference level in this range: compliance there is assessed on E- and H-field strengths instead (see the ICNIRP 2020 page), so these are the calculator's planning figures for the band rather than a published ICNIRP reference level (ICNIRP, 2020).

The calculator's flat 200 µT ELF band (3–30 Hz) is one more simplification worth naming: ICNIRP's 200 µT figure is the power-frequency row, and below 25 Hz the published public level is frequency-dependent — down to 4 × 10⁴ / f² µT at the lowest frequencies (ICNIRP, 2010, Tables 3–4).

How this page fits with the rest of the site

• The two framework documents: ICNIRP 2010 (1 Hz–100 kHz) and ICNIRP 2020 (100 kHz–300 GHz).
• What the evidence classifications mean: IARC Group 2B, which anchors the precautionary options above.
• The full method — emission ranges, position/mode factors and distance fall-off — is on the methodology page.

Sources

Every figure and claim on this page carries its dated source:

1. ICNIRP (2010), "Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric and magnetic fields (1 Hz to 100 kHz)", Health Physics 99(6): 818–836 — the ELF/LF figures.
2. ICNIRP (2020), "Guidelines for limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)", Health Physics 118(5): 483–524 — the RF figures and the absence of an MF power-density reference level.
3. FCC (1997), "Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields", OET Bulletin 65, Edition 97-01 — the FCC figures and their frequency scaling.
4. ARPANSA (2002), "Radiation Protection Standard for Maximum Exposure Levels to Radiofrequency Fields — 3 kHz to 300 GHz", Radiation Protection Series S-1 — the ARPANSA RF option.
5. IEEE (2002), "IEEE Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, 0 to 3 kHz", IEEE Std C95.6-2002 — the IEEE option.
6. ICRP (2007), "The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection", ICRP Publication 103 — the public (1 mSv/year) and occupational (20 mSv/year) dose limits.
7. UNSCEAR (2008), "Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation", Vol. I — the ~2.4 mSv/year world-average natural background dose.
8. IARC (2002), Monographs Vol. 80, and WHO (2007), Environmental Health Criteria 238 — the 0.3–0.4 µT epidemiology band behind the precautionary options.
9. Council of the European Union (1999), Recommendation 1999/519/EC on the limitation of exposure of the general public to electromagnetic fields (0 Hz to 300 GHz) — the EU's 100 µT public reference level at 50 Hz.
10. ICNIRP (2014), "Guidelines on limits of exposure to static magnetic fields", Health Physics 106(3) — the static-field ceiling cited above.
11. EMF.exposed methodology (last reviewed October 2026) — the blended default and the MF planning figures, as implemented in the calculator.