Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields（ELF EMFs） that generated from transmission lines

transformers

household appliances

and so on

have been a ubiquitous part of modern life. To date

potential health risks of ELF EMFs are unclear. To summarize the researches of ELF EMF related health researches in recent years and to guide the researches in the future

we briefly describe several physical characteristics of ELF EMFs and emphatically introduce the research progress in the aspects of epidemiological investigation

human volunteers

animal experiments

cellular and molecular studies

and biophysics. Most of the epidemiological investigations suggested that the odds ratio of ELF EMFs health risks is about 1 to 2. Human volunteer studies have focused on cardiopulmonary physiological changes

behavioral and neurophysiological changes

hematologic

melatonin

etc. Whereas

animal studies mainly targeted recognition memory

tumor

vascular permeability

melatonin

immune system

anti-proleliferative effect

synergistic effect

etc. Cellular and molecular studies put main efforts in cell cycle

apoptosis

division

DNA replication

transcription

and translation

etc. Biophysical researches mainly aimed at ROS mechanism

intracellular Ca2+

ion channels

robust behavior

signal-to-noise ratio

and magnetic particles. International standards have been established to define the limit values of ELF EMFs

including the international ones like ICNIRP guidelines and IEEE standards

and some Chinese standards about occupational hygiene and environmental control. Future research should include the system features of living body with ELF EMFs intervention

such as robustness

emergent

etc.

the real-time responses of organisms to ELF EMFs

and the biological effect of electromagnetic energy.