Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields From Laptop Use of “Laptop” Computers

Abstract

Portable computers are often used at tight contact with the body and therefore are called "laptop." The authors measured electromagnetic fields (EMFs) laptop computers produce and estimated the induced currents in the body, to assess the safety of laptop computers. The authors evaluated 5 commonly used laptop of different brands. They measured EMF exposure produced and, using validated computerized models, the authors exploited the data of one of the laptop computers (LTCs) to estimate the magnetic flux exposure of the user and of the fetus in the womb, when the laptop is used at close contact with the woman's womb. In the LTCs analyzed, EMF values (range 1.8-6 μT) are within International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation (NIR) Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines, but are considerably higher than the values recommended by 2 recent guidelines for computer monitors magnetic field emissions, MPR II (Swedish Board for Technical Accreditation) and TCO (Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees), and those considered risky for tumor development. When close to the body, the laptop induces currents that are within 34.2% to 49.8% ICNIRP recommendations, but not negligible, to the adult's body and to the fetus (in pregnant women). On the contrary, the power supply induces strong intracorporal electric current densities in the fetus and in the adult subject, which are respectively 182-263% and 71-483% higher than ICNIRP 98 basic restriction recommended to prevent adverse health effects. Laptop is paradoxically an improper site for the use of a LTC, which consequently should be renamed to not induce customers towards an improper use.

Good practice in occupational health services – The influence of hazardous conditions and nuisance coexisting in the work environment and at home on the course and outcome of pregnancy

“…Bellieni i wsp. [14] przeanalizowali badania epidemiologiczne dotyczące wpływu monitorów ekranowych na wynik ciąży. Wyniki wszystkich badań sugerowały brak wpływu VDT na ryzyko wystąpienia poronienia samoistnego, małej masy urodzeniowej noworodka, przedwczesnego porodu, wewnątrzmacicznego zahamowania wzrostu płodu oraz wad wrodzonych.…”

Analysis of the Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Field Emission from Laptop Computers

“…The risk of the ELF magnetic field exposure of laptop users has been analyzed in [3,4]. They proposed a reference limit level of the ELF magnetic field emission above which the environmental conditions can be unsafe for humans.…”

“…Hence, the user with his/her fingers and hands is constantly in close contact with the laptop body, which has no position recommended to be measured by the TCO standard. Also, if a laptop is used regularly and is in close contact with the user's body, then the user's health might be subjected to the negative effects [4,6].…”

“…They proposed a reference limit level of the ELF magnetic field emission above which the environmental conditions can be unsafe for humans. The proposed critical limit level is equal to 0.3 μT [3,4].…”

“…Analysis of the measured magnetic field according to the safe reference level uses a typical level of 0.3 μT as the safe reference [3,4]. In these circumstances, the laptops L1, L9 and L10 have the emission exceeding the safe limit.…”