ICNIRP exposure limits: the reference levels explained

Last reviewed: 1 November 2026

The short answer: ICNIRP — the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection — is an independent scientific body whose exposure guidelines are adopted, directly or with local changes, by most national regulators, including across the EU. Its limits are split across two current documents: the 2010 guidelines for low-frequency fields (1 Hz–100 kHz), where the power-frequency (50/60 Hz) general-public reference level for magnetic fields is 200 µT, and the 2020 guidelines for radiofrequency fields (100 kHz–300 GHz — the band that carries mobile phones, WiFi, smart meters and 5G), where the whole-body public reference level for power density is 10 W/m² above 2 GHz and frequency-dependent (f/200 W/m²) between 400 MHz and 2 GHz — about 2 W/m² at 400 MHz and roughly 4.5 W/m² at 900 MHz (ICNIRP, 2010, Health Physics 99(6): 818–836; ICNIRP, 2020, Health Physics 118(5): 483–524, Table 5). Typical home backgrounds sit around 0.01–0.3 µT and everyday RF at normal use distances orders of magnitude below these levels (WHO, Environmental Health Criteria 238, 2007). This page consolidates both documents in one place: what each covers, how the limits are built, the published reference levels, and what they are — and are not — meant to protect against.

What ICNIRP is and which guidelines are in force

ICNIRP publishes exposure guidelines built from the established scientific evidence; regulators adopt them directly or with local changes. Two documents are in force today, and they are not competing revisions of the same limits — they divide the spectrum between them, so which set applies depends on the frequency of the field, not on which document is newer:

• The 2010 guidelines, "Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric and magnetic fields (1 Hz to 100 kHz)", cover low-frequency fields: the 50/60 Hz power-frequency fields around wiring, appliances and power lines, plus industrial sources such as induction heaters and welders up to 100 kHz. Their 1998 predecessor had covered this range with limits built from a smaller evidence base; the 2010 revision re-derived the low-frequency limits from the newer brain-stimulation research (ICNIRP, 2010).
• The 2020 guidelines, "Guidelines for limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)", replace ICNIRP's 1998 guidelines for the radiofrequency range, and they also replace the 100 kHz–10 MHz slice of the 2010 tables. The 2010 nerve-stimulation science below 100 kHz remains in force (ICNIRP, 2020).

How the limits are built: basic restrictions and reference levels

Both documents define two layers. A basic restriction limits a quantity inside the body: for low frequencies, the internal electric field induced in nerve tissue, because above certain thresholds induced fields can stimulate nerve and muscle (ICNIRP, 2010); for radiofrequencies, quantities tied to heating — whole-body and local specific absorption rate (SAR) up to 6 GHz, absorbed power density in the skin above, because at those millimetre-wave frequencies heating becomes superficial (ICNIRP, 2020). A reference level is a practical external field strength, chosen so that a person at or below it will stay within the basic restrictions under worst-case assumptions — meaning the reference levels deliberately include a margin, and a field above a reference level does not automatically mean the internal restriction is exceeded (ICNIRP, 2010; ICNIRP, 2020).

The low-frequency limits (ICNIRP 2010: 1 Hz–100 kHz)

The magnetic-field (flux density, B) reference levels for the general public and for workers, reproduced from ICNIRP's Tables 3 and 4 (ICNIRP, 2010); f is the frequency in hertz:

At 50/60 Hz — the frequency of the electricity grid — the public level is therefore 200 µT and the occupational level 1,000 µT. For electric fields, the published general-public reference level at 50/60 Hz is 5 kV/m, two times below the occupational 10 kV/m (ICNIRP, 2010, Tables 3 and 4). For scale, typical home backgrounds sit around 0.01–0.3 µT (WHO, Environmental Health Criteria 238, 2007), so the public level is roughly a thousand times the background — see the per-source comparisons on pages like power lines and household appliances.

What the 2010 limits protect against

These limits are set against established acute effects: electrical stimulation of nerves and muscle by the fields induced inside the body. Below the reference levels, the induced internal fields stay well under stimulation thresholds for even the most sensitive people, including with the margin ICNIRP applies for the general public (ICNIRP, 2010). What the 2010 guidelines do not do is set a separate numerical limit for possible long-term effects: the epidemiological observation that childhood-leukaemia risk is statistically associated with long-term average magnetic fields above roughly 0.3–0.4 µT is classified as a hazard by IARC (IARC Monographs Vol. 80, 2002), but no mechanism is established and the 2010 guidelines state that the underlying evidence is not sufficient to derive quantitative limits from it (WHO, Environmental Health Criteria 238, 2007; ICNIRP, 2010). That is why the 200 µT public reference level and the 0.3–0.4 µT epidemiology band differ by three orders of magnitude — they answer different questions.

The radiofrequency limits (ICNIRP 2020: 100 kHz–300 GHz)

The 2020 basic restrictions are set against the established adverse effect of RF at guideline frequencies — heating — via a whole-body core-temperature threshold and local-temperature thresholds for skin and tissue (ICNIRP, 2020):

• Whole body: an average whole-body SAR (specific absorption rate) of 0.4 W/kg for workers and 0.08 W/kg for the general public — the public value applies a reduction factor of 50 to the worst-case effect threshold — averaged over 30 minutes (ICNIRP, 2020). For scale, an adult at rest generates about 1 W/kg of metabolic heat (ICNIRP, 2020, citing Weyand et al. 2009).
• Local exposure, 100 kHz–6 GHz: local SAR averaged over any 10 g of tissue: 10 W/kg for workers and 2 W/kg for the public over the head and torso, averaged over 6 minutes (ICNIRP, 2020).
• Local exposure above 6 GHz (the millimetre-wave band used by 5G): restrictions set on absorbed power density in the skin rather than SAR, because at those frequencies heating becomes superficial (ICNIRP, 2020).

The whole-body reference levels for the general public, reproduced from ICNIRP's Table 5 (values also shown for workers; f_M is frequency in MHz) (ICNIRP, 2020):

From 2 GHz up the guidelines additionally publish local reference levels averaged over 6 minutes: 40 W/m² for the public at 2–6 GHz, assessed as the peak spatial average over the projected whole-body area; above 6 GHz, an incident-power-density level averaged over any 4 cm² of body area that falls from about that level to 20 W/m² at 300 GHz (public); and above 30 GHz, twice those values allowed when averaged over any 1 cm² (ICNIRP, 2020, Table 6). These local levels sit above the whole-body 10 W/m² figure — a phone at your ear is assessed against the local and SAR restrictions, not against whole-body values alone.

What changed from the previous (1998) RF guidelines

• Coverage above 6 GHz, for 5G: the 1998 guidelines extended whole-body reference levels (10 W/m² public) up to 10 GHz only; the 2020 guidelines derive local limits from absorbed power density, matching the superficial heating that matters at millimetre waves, and so cover the whole 100 kHz–300 GHz range with frequency-appropriate quantities (ICNIRP, 2020).
• Brief exposures: the 2020 guidelines add reference levels for exposures shorter than 6 minutes above 6 GHz, expressed as incident energy density — the 1998 guidelines had no brief-exposure treatment (ICNIRP, 2020).
• Re-derived E- and H-field levels below 30 MHz: the 1998 low-band reference levels were derived from plane-wave whole-body assumptions; the 2020 values below 30 MHz come from newer numerical dosimetry and are set to protect against nerve stimulation (ICNIRP, 2020, Appendix A).
• Carried over: the headline whole-body public level above 2 GHz remains 10 W/m², as it was under the 1998 guidelines; ICNIRP notes that scientific uncertainty around whole-body RF effects has reduced substantially since 1998 (ICNIRP, 2020).

How this site uses the ICNIRP limits

• The calculator's default ELF figure is the 200 µT public reference level, with a 1,000 µT occupational option (both ICNIRP, 2010). The 100 kHz low-frequency band uses the 27 µT public and 100 µT occupational rows of the same 2010 tables (ICNIRP, 2010).
• The calculator's RF band compares against 10 W/m² — the 2–300 GHz public reference level. The US FCC's public limit at these frequencies is the same headline figure (ICNIRP, 2020, Table 5; FCC, OET Bulletin 65, 1997: 1 mW/cm² above 1,500 MHz).
• Per-source pages apply these levels to everyday devices: mobile phones, WiFi routers, smart meters, 5G small cells, power lines and household appliances.
• The stricter power-frequency options in the calculator (0.15–0.5 µT) are precautionary planning figures, not limits from the 2010 guidelines — see the calculator standards comparison and the methodology page for how the calculator's options differ.
• IARC's hazard classifications of these same exposures (Group 2B, "possibly carcinogenic") are statements about the strength of the evidence, not limits — a different kind of statement from a guideline value.

Frequently asked questions

What does ICNIRP mean?

ICNIRP stands for the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the independent scientific body whose exposure guidelines are adopted, directly or with local changes, by most national regulators, including across the EU (ICNIRP, 2010).

What are the ICNIRP reference levels?

The practical external field strengths ICNIRP publishes as the compliance check for its basic restrictions (the limits on quantities inside the body). Today they come from two documents — the 2010 guidelines for 1 Hz–100 kHz (200 µT public at power frequency) and the 2020 guidelines for 100 kHz–300 GHz (10 W/m² public above 2 GHz) — both reproduced with their published tables on this page.

Are the 2010 or the 2020 guidelines current?

Both are in force, over different frequency ranges: the 2010 guidelines below 100 kHz, the 2020 guidelines from 100 kHz to 300 GHz. Neither supersedes the other across the whole spectrum — see the table above for the split and the boundary detail at 100 kHz–10 MHz.

Sources

Every limit 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 (doi: 10.1097/HP.0b013e3181f06c86). All low-frequency reference levels and scope statements on this page are from this document.
2. ICNIRP (2020), "Guidelines for limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)", Health Physics 118(5): 483–524 (doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000001210). All radiofrequency reference levels, basic restrictions and change statements on this page are from this document (Tables 5 and 6 and Appendix A).
3. WHO (2007), "Extremely low frequency fields", Environmental Health Criteria 238, World Health Organization — home background levels and the long-term-effect context.
4. IARC (2002), "Non-ionizing radiation, Part 1: static and extremely low-frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields", IARC Monographs, Vol. 80 — the Group 2B classification discussed above.
5. FCC (1997), "Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields", OET Bulletin 65, Edition 97-01 — the US public limit the calculator's FCC option implements.