Measurements of Electro-Magnetic Fields in operating theatres and intensive care units

The growing interest of the public opinion about presumed effects of the non ionizing radiations (NIR) on the human organism does not save the hospital environment – in particular operating rooms and intensive care units – where the concentration of electric and electronic technology is higher [1],[2]. If the high density of electric and electronic equipment constantly working in the mentioned environments is considered together with the continuous presence of the medical and paramedical staffs (besides obviously the patients), the necessity of verifying the level of the present electromagnetic fields appear evident. Besides, even if single equipments satisfies the safety regulations on the electromagnetic compatibility, the high number of units connected to the same line of electric power imposes the measurement of the led electric susceptibility [3]. With the aim to examine the dose distribution in the above-mentioned environments, a program of joined study was realized between the Health Physics Service of the Università of Bologna and the Anaesthesiology and Reanimation Institute of the S. Orsola General Hospital of Bologna. In such a world, campaigns of measurements in four intensive care units (from now on called ICU1, ICU2, ICU3, ICU4), in the Low Frequency (LF), in the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) and in the Radio Frequency (RF) band were studied with the effects of the led susceptibility, producing a wide mass of experimental data. Therefore to realize such a program some operating modes were defined as a standard, in consideration of the various environments and the different typology of devices to be examined, to be able to place the obtained results to comparison.