The editors are pleased to present these Proceedings of the V Course of
the "International School of Radiation Damage and Pro- tection" of the
"E. Majorana Centre", held in Erice (Italy) in No- vember 1983. The
lectures and discussions among leading scientists in various disciplines
of physics, engineering, biophysics, cellular biology, physiology and
medicine from 11 countries are included in this compilation. In this
volume we have attempted to explore all aspects of the interaction of
static and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF: 0-300 Hz) electric and magnetic
fields with biological tissue, systems and whole organisms; we
considered dosimetry and what is known or pre- sumed concerning basic
interactions, responses from the cellular and molecular level to the
whole organism. Discussions of medical appli- cations as well as
epidemiologic investigations related to high volt- age transmission were
held with critiques of methodologies used and recommendations for future
approaches. Consideration was also given to the necessity and principles
of setting protection standards for man and the environment. We believe
this is the first attempt to put all this informa- tion together into
one volume to provide perspective for understand- ing the influence of
static and ELF electric and magnetic fields on biological systems. We
hope our attempts were successful. Martino Grandolfo Sol M. Michaelson
Alessandro Rindi v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the Fifth Course of the
International School of Radia- tion Damage and Protection of the "Ettore
Majorana" Centre for Sci- entific Culture directed by Professor A.
Zichichi.
