ABSTRACT
Significant increases in the development and use of equipment that produces nonionizing radiant energy have occurred in the past two decades. Many questions have been raised as to whether adequate measures have been, and are being taken to protect the user, the patient, and the public from possible adverse health effects. Nonionizing electromagnetic (EM) energy (in contrast to ionizing EM radiation) is of longer wavelength/lower frequency, and is intrinsically less energetic (i.e., lower photon energy) in its interaction with biological tissue. Consequently, nonionizing radiation generally does not produce ions in biological materials as it interacts with the tissue.
