Current densities and total contact currents during forest clearing tasks under 400 kV power lines

The aim of the study was to analyze all values of electric currents from measured periods while performing tasks in forest clearing. The objective was also to choose and analyze measurement cases, where current measurements successfully lasted the entire work period (about 30 min). Two forestry workers volunteered to perform four forest clearing tasks under 400 kV power lines. The sampling frequency of the current measurements was 1 sample/s. The maximum values of the current densities were 1.0–1.2 mA/m² (calculated internal EFs 5.0–12.0 mV/m), and the average values were 0.2–0.4 mA/m². The highest contact current was 167.4 μA. All measured values during forest clearing tasks were lower than basic restrictions (0.1 V/m and 0.8 V/m) of the International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection. Bioelectromagnetics. 37:423–428, 2016. © 2016 The Authors. Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.