6 research outputs found
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Recommendations for Guidelines for EMF Personal Exposure Measurements, Rapid Project #4
The purpose of developing guidelines for electric and magnetic field (EMF) personal exposure measurements (lF'EM) is to ensure reliable and comparable data across I?EM studies. Study techniques may vary due to different populations or objectives, but the resulting data should be consistently reported and comparable, to the extent possible. Any guideline must allow creativity by the research-oriented investigator and provide specific guidance to industrial hygienists or other results-oriented investigators, requiring a standard protocol. Recognizing measurement studies with different purposes is an important aspect of these recommendations. The guidelines presented here intend to produce comparable data across studies while remaining flexible. The recommendations for designing and implementing an EMF PEM program describe a three-stage process. The first step is to clearly state the purpose of the PEM program. The next stage addresses the fundamental elements of an EMF PEM study, including an assessment of the scientific and organizational resources that will be required. This process is codified in a written study plan. These stages are described in 1 Section 5 of this report. The third stage of a PEM study involves the design, implementation and documentation of specific procedures and protocols fo~ sampling strategies, selection of measurement parameters; instrumentation, measurement and data collection, data management, data analysis, quality assurance, uncertainty evaluation, and archiving the study methods and results. The methods for designing these elements of an EMF PEM study are described in Section 6: Specific Guidelines for EMF I?EM Study Design
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Development of an EMF Measurements Database, EMF Rapid Program, Project #5, Interim Report: April 1995-December 1996
The EMF measurement data sets in existence today were compiled with varying goals and techniques. Consequently, they have different information content as well as varying logical and physical structure. Future studies will continue to pursue varying goals and utilize techniques that cannot be known in advance. Primary goals for the EMF Measurements Database developed under the Department of Energy EMF RAPID Program are to develop a database structure that can accommodate the diversity of EMF data sets, provide guidance for production of future EMF data sets, and serve as an accessible repository of EMF measurement data. Specific objectives of the EMF Measurements Database are: o to preserve study descriptions, results and data; o to provide readily accessible, well-documented data; and o to facilitate communication among researchers. In addition, the EMF Measurements Database will encourage additional analysis of existing data sets, facilitate analysis of data from multiple projects, support design of new studies, and permit future issues in EMF exposure assessment to be addressed with existing data. Preservation of study descriptions and data is accomplished with a formal, but open, structure. Specifications have been developed for the various elements of the database. Each data set in the database is formally described by a metadata file. The structured metadata file describes the origin, development, logical and physical structure and distribution mechanism for each data set. The metadata for each data set is generated according to a specification developed for the EMF Measurements Database. The actual measurement data is contained in data Products for each data set. The number and type of data product will vary by data set. Most of the data products in the possession of the EMF Measurements Database are available for download from an Internet site. For some data sets, the data products will be maintained by other parties who may have their own access procedures. In addition, data set contributors or users can provide reports that describe results of the study and analysis of the data with text and figures. Guidelines have been developed for preparation of reports. Access to the EMF Measurements Database is provided via an Internet site (http://www.emf-data. erg). The site provides descriptive information in a home page, . . access to data products with a file transfer protocol (ftp) address, and links to other EMF-related sites
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Recommendations for Guidelines for Environment-Specific Magnetic-Field Measurements, Rapid Program Engineering Project #2
The purpose of this project was to document widely applicable methods for characterizing the magnetic fields in a given environment, recognizing the many sources co-existing within that space. The guidelines are designed to allow the reader to follow an efficient process to (1) plan the goals and requirements of a magnetic-field study, (2) develop a study structure and protocol, and (3) document and carry out the plan. These guidelines take the reader first through the process of developing a basic study strategy, then through planning and performing the data collection. Last, the critical factors of data management, analysis reporting, and quality assurance are discussed. The guidelines are structured to allow the researcher to develop a protocol that responds to specific site and project needs. The Research and Public Information Dissemination Program (RAPID) is based on exposure to magnetic fields and the potential health effects. Therefore, the most important focus for these magnetic-field measurement guidelines is relevance to exposure. The assumed objective of an environment-specific measurement is to characterize the environment (given a set of occupants and magnetic-field sources) so that information about the exposure of the occupants may be inferred. Ideally, the researcher seeks to obtain complete or "perfect" information about these magnetic fields, so that personal exposure might also be modeled perfectly. However, complete data collection is not feasible. In fact, it has been made more difficult as the research field has moved to expand the list of field parameters measured, increasing the cost and complexity of performing a measurement and analyzing the data. The guidelines address this issue by guiding the user to design a measurement protocol that will gather the most exposure-relevant information based on the locations of people in relation to the sources. We suggest that the "microenvironment" become the base unit of area in a study, with boundaries defined by the occupant's activity patterns and the field variation from the sources affecting the area. Such a stratification allows the researcher to determine which microenvironment are of most interest, and to methodically focus the areas, in order to gather the most relevant set of data
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Development of an EMF Measurments Database, EMF Rapid Program, Project #5, Interim Report: April 1995-December 1996
The EMF Measurements Database project is being implemented by T. Dan Bracken, Inc. as part of the EMF Research and Public Information Dissemination (EMF RAPID) Program. The Database is a collection of data sets that relate to measurement of electric and/or magnetic fields. This report describes activities during the period January 1997 to March 1998. Primary goals for the EMF Measurements Database are to develop a database structure that can accommodate the diversity of EMF data sets, provide guidance for production of future EMF data sets, and serve as an accessible repository of EMF measurement data. Specific objectives of the EMF Measurements Database are: o to presewe study descriptions, results and data; o to provide readily accessible, well-documented data; and - o to facilitate communication among researchers. In addition, the EMF Measurements Database will encourage additional analysis of existing data sets, facilitate analysis of data from multiple projects, support design of new studies, and permit future issues in EMF exposure assessment to be addressed with existing data. Preservation of study descriptions and data is accomplished with a formal, but open, structure. Specifications have been developed for the various elements of the database. Each data set in the database is formally described by a metadata file. The structured metadata file describes the origin, development, logical and physical structure, and distribution mechanism for each data set. The metadata for each data set is generated according to a specification developed for the EMF Measurements Database. The actual measurement data is contained in data products for each data set. The number and type of data product will vary by data set. Most of the data products available from the EMF Measurements Database can be downloaded from an Internet site. For some data sets, the data products will be maintained by other patties who may have their own access procedures