# Hair dryer and electric shaver

> Motor appliances held against the head: among the strongest ELF magnetic fields in a home at the point of use — up to 700 mG (70 µT) at 15 cm across the models measured — but used for minutes a day, and down to at most 70 mG (7 µT) by 30 cm.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/emitters/hair-dryer
- Collection: Sources & emitters
- Record id: `emitters:hair-dryer`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/emitters/hair-dryer
- Also known as: hairdryer EMF, blow dryer radiation, electric razor EMF, shaver EMF

## Key values

- **Category:** elf magnetic
- **Emission bands:** Power frequency
- **Environments:** home
- **Duty cycle:** Minutes per day, only while the motor runs — the shortest exposure of any high-field household appliance.

## Field strength by distance

- **15 cm:** 1–700 mG — Measured range — Measured range at 15 cm across hair dryers (1–700 mG / 0.1–70 µT) and electric shavers (4–600 mG / 0.4–60 µT) in the EPA's 1992 survey of 60 Hz appliances. The spread between models is three orders of magnitude, so the appliance class predicts far less than the individual unit. [nrc-1997-appliance-fields, epa-1992-appliance-fields]
- **30 cm:** 0–100 mG — Measured range — By 30 cm the strongest shaver measured 100 mG (10 µT) and the strongest dryer 70 mG (7 µT); the weakest units were indistinguishable from background at this distance. [nrc-1997-appliance-fields, epa-1992-appliance-fields]

## Mitigations, most effective first

- **Treat these as duration exposures, not level exposures: brief daily use is a small share of a cumulative dose.** — Epidemiology on power-frequency fields uses time-weighted averages, in which a two-minute peak contributes little.
- **Measure the specific unit rather than trusting a class figure, and prefer a dryer whose motor sits away from the handle.** — Field strength at the hand and head is dominated by the motor's position and winding, which varies by three orders of magnitude between models.

## Measure with

- ELF gaussmeter (power-frequency magnetic field)

## Related records

- [Household background magnetic field (50/60 Hz)](https://emfbase.com/emitters/household-background-magnetic-field): Away from appliances, homes typically sit below a few milligauss; the WHO's epidemiological association with childhood leukaemia begins at a daily average of 3–4 mG (0.3–0.4 µT).
- [Building Biology SBM-2024 AC magnetic field bands](https://emfbase.com/limits/building-biology-ac-magnetic-bands): Sleeping-area grades at 50/60 Hz: below 0.2 mG no anomaly, 0.2–1 mG weak, 1–5 mG strong, above 5 mG extreme.
- [Magnetic flux density](https://emfbase.com/quantities/magnetic-flux-density): The quantity an ELF gaussmeter reports, expressed in milligauss or microtesla, used to assess wiring, transformers and power lines. 1 µT = 10 mG.

## Sources

- `nrc-1997-appliance-fields` National Research Council (US), National Academies Press (1997). *Possible Health Effects of Exposure to Residential Electric and Magnetic Fields, Table 2-3: magnetic-field strengths of common household appliances*. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232734/table/ttt00003/ — peer-reviewed, link checked 2026-08-12
- `epa-1992-appliance-fields` U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (1992). *EMF in Your Environment: Magnetic Field Measurements of Everyday Electrical Devices (EPA 402-R-92-008)*. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=000005EP.TXT — government, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.