Human exposure from pulsed magnetic field therapy mats: a numerical case study with three commercial products

A previous study found that incident magnetic field exposure from pulsed magnetic field therapy (PMFT) mats can exceed ICNIRP 1998 reference levels. Due to the popularity of PMFT mats for private therapeutic use, regulators need to know if the products are compliant with the basic restrictions and how overexposure can be determined. This case study's objective was to test if such products are intrinsically compliant with ICNIRP 1998 and ICNIRP 2010 basic restrictions by evaluating three different commercially-available PMFT products. In the first step, experimentally validated numerical models of these mats were developed. As a second step, the induced fields were evaluated in high-resolution anatomical models of the IT'IS Virtual Population for various lying positions and compared to the safety guidelines. As expected, a strong influence of exposure on the PMFT design, anatomy, lying position and body orientation was found. The maximum exposure of one PMFT exceeds 3.1 times the basic restrictions of ICNIRP 1998 for the central nervous system tissues and 1.36 times the limit of ICNIRP 2010 for the peripheral tissues. Body loops can significantly increase the electric fields close to the skin, e.g., when the hand and thigh are in contact during mat use. In conclusion, PMFT products are not intrinsically compliant with ICNIRP 1998 and ICNIRP 2010 basic restrictions and therefore require special considerations.