
short front and tail times apparently would not have
a harmful effect because they are much faster than
the Chronaxie of tissue excitation. However, some
research has also reported that slow atmospheric
discharges with longer times of up to 200 μs could
generate a nerve stimulation effect. In addition, the
electric and magnetic fields generated by
overvoltages/overcurrents caused by events have
front times that can be in the order of milliseconds,
so they could be in the spectrum of nerve
stimulation impulses and could have characteristics
comparable to the limit determined for muscle
stimulation. The possible effects associated with the
magnetic field are of particular interest, which
typically has no controls to mitigate the possible
risk; on the other hand, the electric field has a
specific control implemented through fixed or
temporary grounding.
2 General Aspects of Exposure to
Electric (CM) and Magnetic (CM)
Field
The World Health Organization (WHO), in its role
as the guiding and coordinating authority for health
action in the United Nations system, plays a leading
role in world health matters. With this focus, it
commissioned the ICNIRP to prepare a set of
recommendations and guidelines for the protection
of people from non-ionizing radiation. As a result of
this Commission’s work, the conclusions on the
scientific evidence related to the effects of NIR on
health were published in 1998, which became a
reference document for governmental, public, and
private institutions responsible for the population’s
health, as well as for researchers in the field and the
general public. These recommendations have been
periodically updated and validated in documents
published by ICNIRP from 1998 to the present, [1],
[2]. Due to the diverse characteristics of the
exposure, the impossibility of fully determining the
causal effect, and the complexity associated with
calculating the induced parameters, two types of
values are considered for limiting EMF exposure.
The exposure values associated with the basic
restrictions are based on health effects that have
been precisely established, and their values are
given in induced physical quantities, making them
difficult to measure in practice. To ensure protection
against such effects, the corresponding values
should never be exceeded, [3], [4], [5], [6].
The exposure values associated with the
reference levels are obtained from the basic
restrictions, using mathematical models that relate
the induced variables to more easily measurable
physical parameters. In addition, they take into
account the factors that can modify the exposure, in
order to provide a direct comparison parameter.
They are calculated for the condition of maximum
coupling of the field with the exposed individual,
frequency dependence, and dosimetric uncertainties,
thus providing maximum protection, [4], [6]. If the
measured values are higher than the reference
levels, it does not necessarily imply that the basic
constraints are being exceeded, but further analysis
is essential to assess compliance with the basic
constraints, [4], [5], [6].
ICNIRP recommendations are widely known for
exposures to constant frequency fields or those
whose spectral content can be decomposed into a
reasonable number of components and specific
constraints applied to each frequency, and then total
weighting applied. High gradient fields with shapes
far from sinusoidal and frequencies not
characterizable with classical transforms must have
different considerations for compliance verification
in the framework of their exposure safety. Some
models of lightning signals that can give rise to
these fields can be found in [7].
Specifically for high gradient fields, ICNIRP
has recommended three models for the evaluation of
exposure to pulsed or complex signals, which can be
consulted in detail in [2], [5], [6].
The first consists of converting the signal,
generally rectangular, to an equivalent sinusoidal
signal by adjusting the frequency of the resulting
wave with the width of the original pulse. This
method has weaknesses in complex waveforms
since it ignores the signals superimposed on the
equivalent main frequency, [5].
A second method consists of the spectral
decomposition in frequency of the original signal
and the unitary comparison of each of the
amplitudes of the frequencies of the resulting
spectrum, in relation to the limits determined for
each frequency, weighting an overall exposure that
adds one by one each exposure component. This
method yields good results in periodic signals with
several coherent cycles, however, it presents
important weaknesses in non-periodic signals due to
the convergence problem associated with the signal
sampling and the low-frequency components
resulting from using time-frequency transforms in
truncated signals, [2], [5]. Filtering solutions have
been proposed, however, for high gradient pulsed
signals or narrow band sinusoidal bursts, they can
artificially hide or reduce the exposure associated
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on CIRCUITS and SYSTEMS
DOI: 10.37394/23201.2024.23.22
Fabian Ricardo Rojas, Gerardo Guerra, Sergio Rivera