MRI pressure

A pressure group that goes by the name of the MRI Alliance is demanding that the European Commission amends the Physical Agents (EMF) Directive, which, if adopted into national legislation, would drastically curtail the use of MRI scanners in hospitals.

The EMF Directive, adopted by the European Union (EU) in 2004, and due to come into force on national statute books in 2012, contains limits to occupational exposure of electromagnetic fields. The Directive was originally set to become law in 2008, but this was postponed due to pressure from the MRI community.

The European Commission based its Directive on previous guidelines from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). But these were cautious guidelines that included many assumptions and safety factors.

ICNIRP has revised its findings, in line with verifiable research, and concluded that in controlled environments, including hospitals and research centres, the limit for static magnetic fields should be higher.

The pressure group also hopes that in 2010, ICNIRP will amend its guidelines on the time-varying magnetic fields that are also used in MRI equipment.