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.

KEYWORDS:

• electromagnetic
• exposure
• laptop
• pregnancy