# What is a safe milligauss level?

> ICNIRP's public guideline is 2,000 mG; the epidemiological association starts at 3–4 mG daily average; the building-biology sleeping-area target is under 0.2 mG.

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- Record id: `questions:what-is-a-safe-milligauss-level`
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- Last verified: 2026-08-12
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- Also known as: safe mG level, how many milligauss is safe, safe microtesla level

## Key values

- **Topic:** safe levels

## Question

What is a safe level of magnetic field exposure in milligauss?

## Answer

There is no single 'safe' number, because regulatory limits and precautionary targets answer different questions. The highest published value is ICNIRP's 50/60 Hz public reference level of 2,000 mG (200 µT) — a guideline, enforceable only where a jurisdiction adopts it, and the EU still uses the older 1,000 mG (100 µT) figure — both thousands of times above anything found in a normal home. The figure most people are actually looking for is 3–4 mG (0.3–0.4 µT), the daily-average level above which pooled epidemiology found an association — not a demonstrated cause — with childhood leukaemia, and building-biology practice treats under 0.2 mG in a sleeping area as no anomaly. Typical homes measure well below 4 mG away from panels and appliances.

## Related records

- [ICNIRP 2010 general public magnetic field reference level at 50/60 Hz](https://emfbase.com/limits/icnirp-public-magnetic-field-50-60-hz): 200 µT (2000 mG) for the public and 1000 µT occupational — five orders of magnitude above typical household background.
- [WHO/IARC ELF magnetic field association threshold (0.3–0.4 µT)](https://emfbase.com/limits/who-elf-0-3-0-4-microtesla-association): The average daily exposure level above which pooled epidemiological studies report an association with childhood leukaemia, and the basis for the IARC Group 2B classification of ELF magnetic fields.
- [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.

## Sources

- `icnirp-2010` International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (2010). *Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Time-Varying Electric and Magnetic Fields (1 Hz to 100 kHz)*. https://www.icnirp.org/en/publications/article/lf-guidelines-2010.html — guideline, link checked 2026-08-12
- `who-elf` World Health Organization (2007). *Electromagnetic fields and public health: exposure to extremely low frequency fields*. https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/radiation-and-health/non-ionizing/exposure — government, link checked 2026-08-12
- `sbm-2024` Institut für Baubiologie + Nachhaltigkeit (IBN) (2024). *Building Biology Evaluation Guidelines for Sleeping Areas (SBM-2024)*. https://buildingbiology.com/site/downloads/SBM-2024_EVALUATION_GUIDELINES_EN.pdf — ngo, link checked 2026-08-12
- `ahlbom-2000` British Journal of Cancer (2000). *A pooled analysis of magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia*. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10970686/ — peer-reviewed, 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.