From 1 July 2016, occupational exposure to EMFs in the UK is governed by the Control of Electromagnetic Fields at Work Regulations 2016.
You can see full details of these Regulations elsewhere on this site. On this page, we set out how the UK electricity industry complies with these Regulations.
Policy
The industry policy towards compliance with these Regulations is set out in an ENA SHE Standard. Some companies follow this directly, some have enacted essentially the same policies into their own framework of safety documentation.
The key policies are:
The limits
The electricity industry normally complies with the High Action Levels
- magnetic fields 6 mT (18 mT limbs only)
- electric fields 20 kV/m
In specific circumstances, compliance can be judged against the Health Effects Exposure Limit Value using numerical dosimetry.
Staff with Active Medical Devices
Staff with Active Impanted Medical Devices or Body Worn Medical Devices are required to notify their employer so that an assessment can be made of their specific device against their working environment (minimising the need for blanket restrictions "just in case").
Staff with Passive Medical Devices
Staff with Passive Medical Devices are assessed as not being at any significant risk. For the full assessment, see the Risk Assessment below.
Pregnant staff
Pregnant staff are given the option of complying with the public limits instead of the occupational limits for the duration of their exposure. For the formal justification of this, see the Risk Assessment below.
Risk Assessment
The industry maintains a single Risk Assessment document that collects together all the information on each different plant item or work practice. This Risk Assessment encompasses generation, under the auspices of Energy UK, as well as transmission and distribution, under the auspices of Energy Networks Association.
Information and Training
The industry provides this information sheet with all the key basic information that all staff need to be aware of:
There is also a video explaining the background and the issues:
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