On the issues related to compliance assessment of ICNIRP 2010 basic restrictions

This article discusses technical issues related to compliance assessment of ICNIRP 2010 basic restrictions. Several difficulties are identified in this study when assessing the spatial average and 99th percentile value of the electric field. These issues are mainly attributed to the lack of clarity in the guideline specifications, which leads to inadequate or irreproducible results. Effects on compliance results due to such ambiguous procedures are hereby investigated, with particular focus on technical issues rather than biological ones. Examples spanning from simple canonical test cases to realistic applications have been selected to highlight the strong variability in dosimetry results. Based on our findings, revisiting the ICNIRP 2010 guidelines is strongly recommended, and proposed alternative solutions are outlined. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.