Problems of human exposure in electromagnetic fields and radiation

Recent technological applications with radio waves induced public fear about possible adverse effects. A brief and simple overview and classification of the effects when exposed to non ionizing electromagnetic fields and radiation is presented. Basics are given of the actual guidelines to protect people and some discrepancies are discussed. The introduction of safety factors (SF) and health factors (HF) is proposed. For the low frequency range a HF of at least 10 should be introduced and for high frequencies a health factor of 4. Although probabilistic effects of radio waves have not been established, and are not likely to be found, some countries have already applied very high health factors on the levels of the guidelines.