Table 1.
Characteristics of individual human studies
| Author, year | Exposed body part (number of subjects) | Exposure | Endpoints | Outcome | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barron and Dreher [28] | whole-body (n = 10) |
static EF of 1 kV/m alone (? or combined with air ions?) for approximately 1 h | physiological/health-related effects: blood parameters; respiration rate; pulse; blood pressure; brightness detection; reaction times; field awareness; muscular steadiness |
no significant effect | also air ions tested; not clear if peer-reviewed, all subjects were pilots |
| Blondin et al. [29] | whole-body (n = 48) |
static EF of <10 to 50 kV/m alone or in combination with air ions; 7–11 s per trial (several 100 trials during 1 day) | field perception | median perception threshold 45.1 kV/m without ions; high ion densities lowered the median threshold to 36.9 kV/m | |
| Chapman et al. [30] | arm (n = 16) |
static EF of 30 to 65 kV/m; 7–11 s per trial (several 80 trials during 1 day) | field perception | subjects did not perceive static EF | also AC EF |
| Clairmont et al. [31] | whole-body | static EF of −40 to 40 kV/m alone or combined with different AC EF | field perception | perception threshold of static EF 10–20 kV/m; simultaneous AC EF lowered the threshold | main focus was technical |
| Haupt and Nolfi [35] | whole-body (n = 438) |
static EF of approx. −16 to 21 kV/m and static MF of 22 μT of a HVDC line for at least 5 years | physiological/health-related effects: self-reported health issues (e.g., headache, depression, allergies, illness days) |
no significant effect | cross-sectional epidemiological study |
| Odagiri-Shimizu and Shimizu [34] | human arm (n = 10–30 per condition) | static EF up to 450 kV/m with variable humidity | field perception | average perception threshold approx. 250 kV/m at 90% relative humidity and approx. 375 kV/m at 50% relative humidity; awareness decreased threshold and shaving of the arm made it impossible to detect the field up to 450 kV/m | |
| Oftedal et al. [32] | whole-body (n = 20) | static and AC EF and MF generated by visual display monitors, exposure for 2 weeks during work (at least 3 days/week, 2 h/day); average static EF of 2 kV/m without filter | physiological/health-related effects: self-reported skin symptoms |
no significant effect | active and inactive filters nearly diminished static EF, but AC EF was only diminished by active filter; cross-over design |
| Skulberg et al. [33] | whole-body (n = 120) |
static and AC EF generated by visual display monitors, without antistatic measure (VDU treatment with ionic liquid) static EF up to 95 kV/m, median value up to 0.23 kV/m; mean exposure duration 6 h/day | physiological/health-related effects: self-reported skin symptoms; general health symptoms; behavioral tests |
skin symptoms could be reduced; no significant effect regarding general symptoms and behavior |