Non-ionizing radiation at workplace: assessment and reduction

The Legislative Decree no. 81/2008, as amended, established in Title VIII, the general obligation of the employer to eliminate at the source or minimize the risks of exposure to physical agents at workplace, including non-ionizing radiation. The Regulations transpose the Artificial Optical Radiation (AOR) Directive 2006/25/EU and the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Directive (2013/35/EU) of the European Parliament and Council. For all physical agents Legislative Decree no. 81/2008 provides that, where there is a potential hazardous exposure, the hazard should be managed through the application of a combination of appropriate control measures applying them in the following hierarchy of importance: eliminate the hazard ; substitute the hazard with a less hazardous process; introduce engineering controls, protective housings, enclosures, interlocks, delayed operation switches, etc.; introduce administrative controls, limiting the duration of exposure and personal protective equipment (PPE). In this context it is essential to provide workers and all those involved in the company's security system, proper procedures of risk assessment and prevention, and adequate information and training on the correct behaviour to be adopted in all activities in the vicinity of significant sources of optical radiations or electromagnetic fields. In the present paper the principles underlying the risk assessment of optical radiation and electromagnetic fields are discussed, referring both to the current legislation in Italy and to the Physical Agents Portal, which is recognized as an official reference for such an assessment.