"On the basis of present evidence only the most obstinate can deny that there is adequate cause for concern and an urgent need for additional study ... I strongly advise people to reduce their exposure to magnetic fields."

- Dr. David O Carpenter, in Epidemiological Evidence for An Association Between Exposure to 50 and 60 Hz Magnetic Fields and Cancer, November 1994

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This page has some figures for average exposure levels to Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Magnetic Fields from some selected common household appliances.

First of all, let's remember that because a mechanism of action has not been established, relying on magnetic-field levels only in an attempt to protect yourself, might give you a FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY. These figures also neglect other emissions at different frequencies, (relevant to VDTs) and electric fields.

But even given the unknowns, a gross representation of magnetic field strength might at least allow us to:

1. arrange our homes so we spend less time near high-current appliances,
2. moderate or curtail the use of some appliances we feel may not be justified,
3. just get a better overview of where the fields in our homes come from.

Remember that magnetic fields come from moving electric current, so the more current your appliance uses, the greater the magnetic field; for a given line voltage, (ie: 120 VAC), the greater the power in WATTS, the greater the current, and the resulting magnetic field. Even small electric motors are big magnetic field sources.

You can purchase an inexpensive Gaussmeter from the EMR Alliance for about $40 to do baseline measurements around your home.

The following table is populated with data that orignated from the IEEE [1]

Magnetic Field in Milligauss

Appliance	At 4 inches (10 cm)	At 1 foot (30 cm)	At 3 feet (1 m)
Blenders	50 - 220	5.2 - 17	0.3 - 1.1
Can openers	1300 - 4000	31 - 280	0.5 - 7.0
Clothes dryers	4.8 - 110	1.5 - 29	0.1 - 1
Clothes washers	2.3 - 3	0.8 - 3.0	0.2 - 0.48
Coffee makers	6 - 29	0.9 - 1.2	<0.1
Crock pots	8 - 23	0.8 - 1.3	<0.1
Drills	350 - 500	22 - 31	0.8 - 2.0
Electric shavers	14.0 - 1600	0.8 - 90	<0.1 - 3.3
Faust blowers	3 - 120	0.25 - 37	<0.1 - 3.1
Flourescent desk lamps	100 - 200	6 - 20	0.2 - 2.1
Flourescent fixtures	40 - 123	2 - 32	<0.1 - 2.8
Hair dryers	3 - 1400	<0.1 - 70	<0.1 - 2.8
Irons	12 - 45	1.2 - 3.1	0.1 - 0.2
Mixers	58 - 1400	5 - 100	0.15 - 2.0
Portable heaters	11 - 280	1.5 - 40	0.1 - 2.5
Sabre and circular saws	200 - 2100	9 - 210	0.2 to 10.0
Televisions	4.8 - 100	0.4 - 20	<0.1 - 1.5
Toasters	10 - 60	0.6 - 7.0	<0.1 - 0.11
Vacuum cleaners	230 - 1300	20 - 180	1.2 - 18.0

Anecdotally, I have an electric stove with an 1800 WATT quick-heating burner. These are the measurements I have made on this one burner:

Magnetic Field in Milligauss

Appliance	At 6 inches (15 cm)	At 1 foot (30 cm)	At 3 feet (1 m)
Electric stove (one burner)	100	9	<1

Household Appliance Magnetic Field Data

The IEEE table above was in all probability populated with data from the following data set.[2]

"This presentation utilizes data that was provided by the EMF RAPID Measurements Database and contributed by James Gauger of IIT Research Institute."

This is a flat file database, I didn't bother to normalize it into tables. The side effect is that there are some appliances that are arranged as subcategories, that I don't agree with; for instance, most people do not consider a humidifier to be a fan, nor do they consider a hot-air pop-corn popper to be a form of blender. However, it may be useful to see the original data that the above table was presumably based upon.

Below, you may select a type of appliance from the list, and a table will be created from the official EMF RAPID Household Appliance Magnetic Field Data database, with all records for that category of appliance displayed.

Here is the record structure of the original data-set:

1 Item ID	2 Category	3 Description	4 Distance	5 Memo	6 Field Strength

1. Item ID: A unique identifier for each appliance measured.
2. Category: The general category of the tested appliance.
3. Description: A sub-category for appliances.
4. Distance: The distance measured in feet, from appliance under test.
5. Memo: A memo field for measurement criteria.
6. Field Strength: Measured in milligauss.

Note that the Category will not be displayed for every record, and the order of fields will be different on the output from the query. Output will be arranged like this:

1 Item ID	2 Description	3 Distance	4 Field Strength	5 Memo

Distance will be displayed in INCHES, not feet; magnetic field will be in milligauss, (mG); (for fields expressed in µTeslas, (µT), divide by ten.)

Pick a Category Blender Can Opener Clothes Dryer Clothes Washer Coffee Maker Crock Pot dehumidifier Dishwasher Disposal Drill Fan Fluorescent Fixture Fluorescent Lamp food processor Furnace Blower Motor Hair Dryer hot air popper humidifier Iron Microwave Mixer Oven Portable Heater Range range hood Refrigerator Saw Shaver Soldering Gun Television Toaster Vacuum Cleaner

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