Evaluation of errors in modeling electromagnetic fields in the human body at low frequencies

Abstract

In the last decade computations of electric fields induced in realistic heterogeneous models of the human body have been performed for exposures to electric or magnetic fields of very low frequencies, typically 50 or 60 Hz. The results of these simulations are often relied on to prevent exposures to levels that elicit undesirable biological effects. For instance, neural excitation is well known to depend on the electric field in tissue and its spatial variation. We have in performed extensive modeling of such situation; such modeling has also been done in other laboratories. One of the parameters that is often used, specifically in the health protection guidelines is the induced current density in a small tissue volume.