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Existing occupational guidelines for exposure to power frequency fields are designed to prevent short-term effects of induced electric fields and currents on excitable tissues. A novel probabilistic approach to the assessment of human exposure to power lines electric fields is introduced. The method offers clear advantages over existing methods that are based on deterministic assumptions. A model is constructed to predict power lines electric fields taking into consideration the random nature of the various parameters involved. Another model is constructed to predict a level of whole-body exposure field, below which no body stimulation is expected, termed here "safe field." Probability distributions of exposure field near transmission lines and for safe electric field are produced. Both models are integrated into a general model, which characterizes the risk exposure to power lines electric fields. The method is applied for exposure assessment near two typical Egyptian power lines with different probabilities of human presence in the line neighborhood and different human age brackets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]