The information on this page will help you understand what you need to do as an employer to protect workers and others from electromagnetic fields (EMFs) under the Control of Electromagnetic Fields at Work Regulations (CEMFAW).
It may also be useful to others with responsibility for health and safety, such as employees and safety representatives.
For a broad background to managing the risks, you can find a basic introduction to electromagnetic fields and employers’ duties.
EMF effects covered by the Regulations
The CEMFAW Regulations relate to:
- sensory effects, which include nausea, vertigo and flickering sensations in peripheral vision
- health effects, which include shocks, nerve stimulation and heating effects
- indirect effects, which include interference with active or passive implanted or body-worn medical devices and uncontrolled attraction of ferromagnetic objects (risk of injury from objects in a large static magnetic field being attracted to magnets in the workplace and hitting anyone in the way)
The Regulations do not address suggested long-term effects of exposure to EMFs, as there is currently no well-established scientific evidence of a causal relationship.
What you must you do as an employer
An employer is required to:
- assess the levels of EMFs to which your employees may be exposed
- ensure that exposure is below exposure limit values (ELVs)
- take action if employees are exposed to EMFs in excess of the ELVs
- when appropriate, devise and implement an action plan to ensure compliance with the exposure limits
- when appropriate, assess the risks of employee's exposure and eliminate or minimise those risks. Ensure you take employees at particular risk, such as expectant mothers and employees with active or passive implanted or body worn medical devices, into account
- provide information and training on the particular risks (if any) posed to employees by EMFs in the workplace and details of any action you are taking to remove or control them. This information should also be made available to their safety representatives as appropriate
- provide health surveillance or medical examination as appropriate
The CEMFAW Regulations contain a Schedule which introduces limits, explains the effects of EMFs and provides details of safety conditions which must be met.
Equipment
Manufacturers and suppliers of new equipment, have to ensure that the equipment is safe – and deal with the risks associated with radiation/EMFs; this information should be covered in the technical file and provided to the user as part of the user instructions etc.
For older equipment, which may have been supplied before product directives came into force, there is a general duty on the manufacturer/supplier to ensure the equipment (articles for use at work) are safe and without risks. This would include providing the end user with relevant information about radiation/EMFs.
You may also wish to consider other, more current equipment for which emission data are available and compare the operating characteristics of this with your older equipment. You can then make an assessment of the degree of exposure and whether you will need additional information to ensure the safety of your employees.
We recommend you consult with your supplier if you feel that you need more information to help you prepare your exposure assessment.
Information needed to assess exposure
In most cases, you should not need to use a consultant and should be able to find enough information from current sources to allow you to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the EMF levels.
For many businesses, consulting A guide to the Control of Electromagnetic Fields at Work Regulations will be enough to demonstrate that exposure does not exceed the ELVs.
Measurements or calculations should only be needed by those employers using the more powerful equipment or highest currents, where pre-existing information is insufficient to determine that the health effects ELVs are not exceeded.
EMFs in the rail industry
If you operate old rolling stock and are concerned about assessing the risk of EMFs where emission information in not available, the manufacturer/supplier may be able to provide information and data from the associated CE technical file.
However, in many cases you will not need this information and should be able to follow the guidance provided by the Railway Safety and Standards Board in Rail Industry Guidance Note on the Application of the Control of Electromagnetic Fields Regulations 2016. They provide case studies, based on modelling, measurements and qualitative assessments performed in and around railway infrastructure and rolling stock.
Exposure limits for sensory and health effects
The levels of EMF that will lead to a worker experiencing a sensory effect are lower than those that will lead to a health effect.
Employees should not be exposed to EMFs which could lead to them experiencing health effects; compliance with the health effect ELVs is a way of ensuring this. This ELV includes a margin for safety to take account of factors such as an individual's height and stature.
However, remember that the health ELVs are not a line between safe and dangerous. In most cases the onset of health effects will be a very weak effect, once the threshold has been exceeded. The health effects ELVs are set well below this onset of health effects threshold. The severity of the effect will increase with increasing exposure levels (these are deterministic effects).
If employees experience sensory effects, they will not suffer harm if there are no indirect consequences. For example, if someone is exposed while working on a structure at height, and are constantly experiencing micro-shocks, the distraction caused may lead to performance errors or to them losing grip on the structure or tools, injuring themselves or others.
If employees are likely to be exposed to EMFs that will lead to the sensory effects ELVs being exceeded, this is permissible, if certain safety conditions, specified in the Schedule to the CEMFAW Regulations, are met.
Exemptions to the exposure limits
Exemptions to the exposure limits apply in the following circumstances:
- for any activity in respect of which a suitable and sufficient alternative exposure limitation system is in place and where the activity is carried out:
- by a person acting in the capacity of a member of either Her Majesty's armed forces or a visiting force
- by any civilian working with such a person, or
- on any premises or part of premises under the control of the Secretary of State for the purposes of the Ministry of Defence or the service authorities of a visiting force
- during the development, testing, installation, use and maintenance of, or research related to, magnetic resonance imaging equipment for patients in the health sector, where:
- the exposure of employees to EMFs is as low as reasonably practicable, and
- employees are protected against the health effects and safety risks arising from their exposure to electromagnetic fields
- if HSE has issued an exemption for your work activity and you can meet the conditions of that exemption
There is more information on exemptions to exposure limits in the CEMFAW Regulations.
Health surveillance
While it is possible to incur health effects, such as heating effects leading to a rise in the core body temperature or localised limb heating from exposure to EMFs, there is no well-established scientific evidence of long-term health effects.
This means that health surveillance is only likely to be necessary in very limited circumstances, for example where an employee is exposed to EMFs in excess of any health-effect ELVs and reports experiencing a health effect.
In such a case, you must make sure that health surveillance and medical examinations are provided as appropriate.
Any health surveillance and/or medical examination must be provided during hours chosen by the employee and a suitable record kept of any health surveillance and medical examinations undertaken.