RFID – what are the safety concerns?

While concerns about privacy may not be universally held it might be expected that the health and safety implications of RFID would be an area of common interest to all potential users.

This is certainly true, albeit at a fairly specific level. Understandably, any technology which exposes its users to an additional source of electromagnetic radiation, which is the basis of RFID – even at very low levels – is likely to be the subject of a certain amount of legislation and regulation. Anxiety over prolonged use of mobile phones, for example, which also produce electromagnetic radiation, has shown that – despite regulation – there are many members of the public who remain unconvinced of the safety of prolonged use of such devices.

RFID and health and safety law

The legal position, in Europe at least, is in a transitional phase. The European Union published its Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Fields) Directive (2004/40/EC) in April 2004, at which point it came into force but with a target date of 30 April 2008 for completion of implementation by all Member States. However, this date was amended to 2012 in light of further research which suggested that some procedures in the medical field might exceed the directive's recommendations. Further research is now being undertaken so that any necessary amendments can be introduced before the 2012 deadline.

Nevertheless, the main areas of concern of the legislation are clear from the original directive, and relate to the possible risks of the exposure of workers to electromagnetic fields – primarily from short-term exposure to induced currents, energy absorption and contact currents. It outlines the minimum requirements necessary to address potential problems arising from these elements, but does not attempt to cover possible longer-term problems.

The limits to exposure that the directive stipulates are based on work carried out previously by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) (see www.icnirp.org), an independent organization that has done extensive research in this field.

However, it should be noted that this is the European position only, and that the legal situation will be different around the world. While many governments use the ICNIRP work as a basis for legislation, the ways in which RFID is implemented internationally nevertheless vary considerably.