## 4 Discussion
### The Overview of Legal Regulations and Standards
The regulations of the EU remain unchanged since their original publication, and the original act is still in force. Different states of the EU may have variations in their legislation (the EU recommendation describes the minimal standards that every country should have implemented, but the member states are free to add additional restrictions or not obey the recommendation). The suggested minimal standards are indicated in Annex B, Table 1 of 1999/519/EC. For the frequency of 50 Hz, the reference values are 5 kV for \(E\) and 100 uT for \(B\). Some countries in Europe have adopted these standards as their own; such examples are Portugal [21], Germany and France [22]. Sometimes, they added some special precautions. For example, in Germany, pursuant to 26. Verordnung zur Durchfuhrung des Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetzes [23] is a list of places (residential buildings, schools, hospitals) where special care should be taken not to exceed the permissible limits. In France, the so-called Abeille law [24] makes it compulsory to provide information on options for exposure reduction and prohibits constant use of Wi-Fi (which is also a type of electromagnetic field) in the presence of children up to the age of 3 years. Yet another group of countries base their policy on the topic on recommendations or have not legally implemented the recommendation of the EU in their legal systems [25]; in some of these countries, a more lenient set of reference values is used. Among these states are the United Kingdom, Scandinavian countries, Austria and the Netherlands. In the United Kingdom, the National Radiological Protection Board recommends sticking to the values from ICNIRP 1998 [26], but it is not the law. Austria uses the ICNIRP 1998 standard, and in some parts of the country (Salzburg province), pursuant to a law from 2009, additional restrictions have been added that described minimal distance between human dwellings and high-voltage installations [27]. Finally, a group of countries decided to implement their own, stricter regulations: Italy, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland. A summary of their legal solutions concerning EMF protection can be found in Table 5.  
This group of states also includes countries that are not members of the European Union--in Serbia, permissible reference values are \(E\) of 2 kV and \(B\) of 40 uT [33]. Outside Europe, the topic is regulated independently by the states. In the following part of the review, selected examples outside of Europe will be analyzed. In Canada, the regulations about protection from EMFs are gathered in Safety Code 6 [34] published by the Radiation Protection Bureau of Canada. It provides the norms of exposure both within the body and (in the form of reference levels) in the environment. The scope of this regulation encompasses \(f\) from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. As for the \(f\) of 50 Hz, Canada does not have any national regulation, but in practice, ICNIRP guidelines are used [35]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{85.4 pt} p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt}} \hline \hline
**Country** & **Ref.** & **EMF Restrictions** \\ \hline Italy & [28] & Basic limit as in 1999/519/EC, but in restricted places (schools, nurseries, residential dwellings), allowed B is only 10 uT, new installations are not to exceed 3 uT, and in 3 regions (Veneto, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna), allowed B is 0.2 uT [29] \\ \hline Poland & [30] & E of 1 kV and B of 75 uT allowed in residential buildings, E of 10 kV and B of 75 uT allowed in public places \\ \hline Belgium & [31] & Differences between provinces; the value of E varies between 5 kV and 10 kV; B is reduced in dwellings or house interiors and is usually 10 uT \\ \hline Switzerland & [32] & Basic limit as in 1999/519/EC, but in new installations and/or objects of “sensitive use”, B allowed is 1 uT \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: The comparison of EMF protection regulation in selected European countries. In the United States, there are no federal regulations concerning reference levels or restrictions to EMFs.