IEC TR 63167:2024
(Main)Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields
Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields
IEC TR 63167:2024 provides general information on the assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields. The contact currents in this context occur when a human body comes into contact with a conductive object that is non-electrified but exposed to an electric field or magnetic field or both at a different electric potential owing to electric or magnetic induction to the object. This is distinguished from the issue of electrical safety where contact with live parts of a conductive object is dealt with. In reference to the international EMF guidelines, the frequency range of contact current covered in this document is DC to 110 MHz, and only steady-state (continuous) contact currents are covered. Transient contact currents (spark discharges) which can occur immediately before the contact with the object are not covered.
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IEC TR 63167 ®
Edition 2.0 2024-08
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic
and electromagnetic fields
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.
IEC Secretariat Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.
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IEC TR 63167 ®
Edition 2.0 2024-08
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic
and electromagnetic fields
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 17.220.20 ISBN 978-2-8322-9431-4
– 2 – IEC TR 63167:2024 © IEC 2024
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Abbreviated terms . 8
5 Contact current in EMF guidelines . 8
6 Consideration in evaluating contact currents . 9
6.1 General . 9
6.2 Assumed situations of human exposure to contact current . 9
6.2.1 General . 9
6.2.2 Capacitive coupling (power line) . 9
6.2.3 Inductive coupling (power line) . 9
6.2.4 Induction heating equipment . 9
6.2.5 Wireless power transfer (WPT) . 10
6.2.6 Broadcasting . 10
6.3 Methods of measurement of touch current used in electrical safety standards . 10
6.3.1 General . 10
6.3.2 IEC standards related to electrical safety . 10
6.3.3 Modelling human body impedance . 13
6.4 Proposed methods of measuring contact current . 15
6.4.1 General . 15
6.4.2 Contact current measurement using a human subject . 16
6.4.3 Contact current measurement using a human equivalent
impedance/circuit. 16
6.4.4 Contact current calculated from measurement of open-circuit voltage . 16
7 Consideration in standardization of evaluation method for contact current . 17
Annex A (informative) Contact current limits in international EMF guidelines. 18
A.1 General . 18
A.2 Reference levels based on electro-stimulation effects . 18
A.3 Reference levels and a guidance based on thermal effects . 19
Bibliography . 21
Figure 1 – Time versus current zones of effects of AC currents (15 Hz to 100 Hz) on
persons for a current path corresponding to left hand to feet (for explanation see
Table 2) . 12
Figure 2 – Measuring network for unweighted touch current . 13
Figure 3 – Measuring network for touch current weighted for perception or startle-
reaction [18]. 14
Figure 4 – Impedances of various parts of the body proposed in IEC TS 62996 [10] for
1 kHz to 6 MHz . 15
Figure 5 – Realistic computational 3D human body model and results of calculation of
current density and pathway . 17
Table 1 – Selected IEC technical committees and standards related to electrical safety . 11
Table 2 – Time versus current zones for AC 15 Hz to 100 Hz for hand to feet pathway
– Summary of zones in Figure 1 . 12
Table A.1 – Reference levels in ICNIRP 2010 guidelines for time varying contact
current from conductive object [1] . 18
Table A.2 – Exposure reference levels (ERLs) of contact current based on electro-
stimulation effects in IEEE Std C95.1-2019 [3] . 18
Table A.3 – Exposure reference levels (ERLs) of contact current based on thermal
effects in IEEE Std C95.1-2019 [3] . 19
– 4 – IEC TR 63167:2024 © IEC 2024
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ASSESSMENT OF CONTACT CURRENT RELATED TO HUMAN EXPOSURE
TO ELECTRIC, MAGNETIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as "IEC Publication(s)"). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in
respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which
may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent
the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC
shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC TR 63167 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 106: Methods for the assessment
of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields associated with human exposure. It is a
Technical Report.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2018. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) revised in accordance with the latest revision of international EMF guidelines;
b) revised in accordance with updates of relevant IEC standards on electrical safety.
The text of this Technical Report is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
106/641/DTR 106/656/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Report is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn, or
• revised.
IMPORTANT – The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding
of its contents. Users should therefore print this document usi
...
IEC TR 63167 ®
Edition 2.0 2024-08
REDLINE VERSION
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic
and electromagnetic fields
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.
IEC Secretariat Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.
IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform IEC Products & Services Portal - products.iec.ch
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a Discover our powerful search engine and read freely all the
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical publications previews, graphical symbols and the glossary.
committee, …). It also gives information on projects, replaced With a subscription you will always have access to up to date
and withdrawn publications. content tailored to your needs.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published
The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
details all new publications released. Available online and once
containing more than 22 500 terminological entries in English
a month by email.
and French, with equivalent terms in 25 additional languages.
Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc
(IEV) online.
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need
further assistance, please contact the Customer Service
Centre: sales@iec.ch.
IEC TR 63167 ®
Edition 2.0 2024-08
REDLINE VERSION
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Assessment of contact current related to human exposure to electric, magnetic
and electromagnetic fields
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 17.220.20 ISBN 978-2-8322-9537-3
– 2 – IEC TR 63167:2024 RLV © IEC 2024
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Abbreviated terms . 8
5 Contact current in EMF exposure guidelines . 8
6 Consideration in evaluating contact currents . 9
6.1 General . 9
6.2 Assumed situations of human exposure to contact current . 9
6.2.1 General . 9
6.2.2 Capacitive coupling (power line) . 9
6.2.3 Inductive coupling (power line) . 9
6.2.4 Induction heating equipment . 10
6.2.5 Wireless power transfer (WPT) . 10
6.2.6 Broadcasting . 10
6.3 Methods of measurement of touch current used in electrical safety standards . 10
6.3.1 General . 10
6.3.2 IEC standards related to electrical safety . 10
6.3.3 Modelling human body impedance . 14
6.4 Proposed methods of measuring contact current . 19
6.4.1 General . 19
6.4.2 Contact current measurement using a human subject . 20
6.4.3 Contact current measurement using a human equivalent
impedance/circuit. 20
6.4.4 Contact current calculated from measurement of open-circuit voltage . 20
7 Consideration in standardization of evaluation method for contact current . 21
Annexe A (informative) Contact current limits in international EMF guidelines . 22
A.1 General . 22
A.2 Reference levels based on electro-stimulation effects . 22
A.3 Reference levels and a guidance based on thermal effects . 24
Bibliography . 26
Figure 1 – Time/ versus current zones of effects of AC currents (15 Hz to 100 Hz) on
persons for a current path corresponding to left hand to feet (for explanation see
Table 2) . 13
Figure 2 – Measuring network for unweighted touch current . 15
Figure 3 – Measuring network for touch current weighted for perception or startle-
reaction [18]. 16
Figure 4 – Simulated body impedance for contact current
measurements shown in IEEE C95.3 [27] .
Figure 4 – Impedances of various parts of the body proposed in IEC TS 62996 [10] for
1 kHz to 6 MHz . 19
Figure 5 – Realistic computational 3D human body model and results of calculation of
current density and pathway . 21
Table 1 – Selected IEC technical committees and standards related to electrical safety . 12
Table 2 – Time/ versus current zones for AC 15 Hz to 100 Hz for hand to feet pathway
– Summary of zones in Figure 1 . 13
Table A.1 – Reference levels in ICNIRP 2010 guidelines for time varying contact
current from conductive object [1] . 22
Table A.2 – Maximum permissible exposure (MPE) levels
of contact current in IEEE safety standards [3], [4] .
Table A.2 – Exposure reference levels (ERLs) of contact current based on electro-
stimulation effects in IEEE Std C95.1-2019 [3] . 23
Table A.3 – Exposure reference levels (ERLs) of contact current based on thermal
effects in IEEE Std C95.1-2019 [3] . 24
– 4 – IEC TR 63167:2024 RLV © IEC 2024
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ASSESSMENT OF CONTACT CURRENT RELATED TO HUMAN EXPOSURE
TO ELECTRIC, MAGNETIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as "IEC Publication(s)"). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in
respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which
may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent
the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC
shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This redline version of the official IEC Standard allows the user to identify the changes
made to the previous edition IEC TR 63167:2018. A vertical bar appears in the margin
wherever a change has been made. Additions are in green text, deletions are in
strikethrough red text.
IEC TR 63167 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 106: Methods for the assessment
of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields associated with human exposure. It is a
Technical Report.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2018. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) revised in accordance with the latest revision of international EMF guidelines;
b) revised in accordance with updates of relevant IEC standards on electrical safety.
The text of this Technical Report is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
106/641/DTR 106/656/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Report is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.ie
...
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