ICNIRP 2010: the low-frequency (ELF) exposure guidelines

Last reviewed: 20 October 2026

The short answer: ICNIRP's 2010 guidelines are the reference levels most national regulators use for low-frequency electric and magnetic fields. At power frequency (50/60 Hz — the fields from wiring, appliances and power lines) the general-public reference level for magnetic fields is 200 µT and the occupational one is 1,000 µT; typical home backgrounds sit around 0.01–0.3 µT, so the public level is roughly a thousand times the background (ICNIRP, 2010, Health Physics 99(6): 818–836; WHO, Environmental Health Criteria 238, 2007). This page explains what the guidelines cover, where each number comes from, and what they are — and are not — meant to protect against.

What ICNIRP is and what the 2010 guidelines cover

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. 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 the higher-frequency fields from induction heaters, welders, transmitters and similar sources up to 100 kHz (ICNIRP, 2010). 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).

Reference level vs basic restriction

The guidelines 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). 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).

The reference levels, as published

The magnetic-field (flux density, B) reference levels for the general public, reproduced from ICNIRP's Table 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). The 200 µT public figure is the level behind the calculator's ELF band and behind 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.

How this site uses the 2010 guidelines

• 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 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.
• The method behind these choices is described in our methodology; the radiofrequency side of the framework is covered on the ICNIRP 2020 page.

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 reference levels and scope statements on this page are from this document.
2. WHO (2007), "Extremely low frequency fields", Environmental Health Criteria 238, World Health Organization — home background levels and the long-term-effect context.
3. 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.