Is There Any Harm by Using Microwave Oven?

As a devout carnivore I can attest to that. Vegans taste better.

These are ignorant people, who probably also believe in astrology, homeopathy and fairies, and who know nothing of science.

Is there anything that science cannot explain?

Yes, there are many things.

I guess that explains it!

People say, you should not believe everything you hear or see on the internet!

Hmm...

It's 2,400,000,000 Hz, each cycle of which consists of two field reversals for 4,800,000,000 "flips" or wobbles per second.

Microwave ovens work by exciting predominantly the Hydrogen atoms in H2o. These in turn cause the molecules to move about, banging against one another causing heat, much like rubbing your hands together really fast. You can do the same thing by applying a heat source to your food such as fire. Either way it winds up cooking your meal, although fire potentially has more negative side effects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_Volumetric_Heating "The FDA accepts that microwaves can be used to heat food for commercial use, pasteurization and sterilization.[4] The main mechanism of microbial inactivation by microwaves is due to thermal effect; the phenomenon of lethality due to 'non-thermal effect' is controversial, and the mechanisms suggested include selective heating of micro-organisms, electroporation, cell membrane rupture, and cell lysis due to electromagnetic energy coupling. Because microwaves transfer electromagnetic energy at a molecular level, and the vibration of the molecules creates heat through friction, it is difficult to properly check for this highly localized 'micro'-thermal effect or create conditions where study of the putative 'athermal' effect is possible.[5]"

Juat because the FDA has accepted something is no assurance that it is safe. They have allowed hundreds of unsafe things. They are paid for by the food industry.

Those early microwave laboratories were not shielded by lead; depending upon frequency, they were shielded by window screen material (usually copper) or chicken wire. Lead shielding was/is used in laboratories working with ionizing radiation, but any sort of metal mesh with a C-C measurement of less than ¼-wavelength is perfectly fine for RF shielding.

I agree. I noticed that in old salt's post, but didn't make a big deal of it. Thanks for the reminder, along with approximate specs.

Yes, some were all Pb, some were Pb and Cu screen over the windows, and some were all Cu. The earliest ones were Pb all over with Pb glass for small windows on the doors. I have been told by a technician that passed on, but worked in one of the early ones, that Pb was the first material used because they didn't know what they needed. They then slowly replaced the Pb in the labs where high power microwave was used when they knew it was safe to go to the Cu screen. This at least, is how they changed at several ITT labs where microwaves were in use. The technician was one of those that worked under my father's direction in the labs. I have had much indirect familiarization with those labs, being taught by my father whether I wanted to listen or not. I have been in the labs before they were torn down and saw some of the vacant labs with partial Pb shielding.

Also, I am familiar with the lead, foil and paper concept with radiological materials. Which particle is the most dangerous to human beings over a period of time? and why?

Good Luck, Old Salt

I started cooking with microwaves well over 50 years ago (when I couldn't possibly afford to buy my own - I used them at work), and continue today. I started cooking with fire roughly 70 years ago, and continue today. I do have a couple of minor medical issues, but I don't believe they are related to the sources of heat used to prepare my foods. The materials used to fabricate the cooking utensils (eg. aluminum) is a much more likely source of problems.

If the door is bent and you are standing at the side or above the oven (but not in front) you could get irradiated. I haven't seen any figures on the damage this can do.

However, if you follow up on those operators of the DEW early warning radar systems who used to stand in front of the antennas on cold mornings to warm themselves up, you might find an answer there.

"The most important thing to remember about the microwaves in a microwave oven is that they are a form of energy and are about million times weaker in quantum enery than visible light..."

So, when I shine an 1100-watt spotlight on a strip of bacon, why it doesn't cook a million times faster than when I put it in my 1100-watt microwave oven? Evidently something else may be at play here beside photon energies? What might that be?

Coherence?

Like soldiers marching in formation, the EM waves inside a microwave oven are in lock-step, ie, they are in-phase and, because they are in-phase, their respective electric-field and magnetic-field components add together. The electric-field component, which typically measures in thousands of volts per meter, does the heavy lifting (via dielectric heating, not resonance. Not at 2450 MHz). The magnetic field component meanwhile induces currents which flow in the cavity walls (and through the more conductive parts of the 'load') and so does not contribute quite so as much.

Shine an ordinary flashlight's high-energy photons on a scrap of aluminum foil and what happens? Nothing. Put that scrap in a microwave oven (with its much lower-energy photons) and you get arcing. Evidently, then, photon energies are not so important has how they behave in aggregate. Same for lasers, btw, for the same reason. The electric fields in high-energy laser beams can grow to astronomical values, but I digress.

Teamwork is what cooks your food; not individual MVPs (Microwave-Variety Photons).

I did not know that. I thought it was the vibration of water molecules....

Thanks.

It is the vibration - the motion, more generally - of molecules (and atoms) that is responsible for what we perceive as heat, but in a microwave oven this motion is not due to molecular resonance per se. For water molecules the resonant frequency is in the terahertz region, whereas microwave ovens operate at the much much lower frequency of 2450 MHz. In fact, water is not even necessary for heating to take place. Certain kinds of glass, for example, will melt in microwave oven, due to thermal runaway. As the material heats up its dielectric losses increase in the direction that would cause it to heat up further, etc, until you've nothing but a molten glob of glass. You can also melt certain kinds of rocks in microwave ovens, basically making your own lava. Just make sure the Missus isn't home when you try it or all hell will break loose.

I'm going off-topic here, but you easily can make a miniature Tesla coil that operates at microwave frequencies. A Tesla coil is basically nothing more than an RF resonator. The ones that operate at microwave frequencies are trivial to build in the extreme. Cut a circular disk of aluminum foil or (preferably) sheet metal 61 mm in diameter, then run a 30 mm finishing nail (trim as necessary) up through the center and voila! A Tesla 'coil.' Stick it in a microwave oven along with a full shot-glass of water in one corner (else risk burning up the magnetron) to create some really hot plasmas.

By the way, this does demonstrate (in a way) the relative scale of something that resonates at 2450 MHz (wavelength: 122 mm) versus the scale of something the size of a water molecule. The smaller it is, the higher the resonant frequency.

How much of the visible light is absorbed by bacon? How much microwave energy is absorbed by bacon? Big difference, I think. Also microwave cooking seems to have as much to do with excitation of water vibrational-rotational energy states as anything, and visible light has almost nothing to do with that.

Interesting side-note: I recently learned of new solid-state devices that utilize crystals, two dissimilar metal electrodes, and heat to create electricity. What it is not: not electrochemical in nature, not galvanic corrosion cell, not photovoltaic, but does have something to do with valence and conduction bands, and the interaction of these bands in complex mixtures with phonons (vibrations excited by heat). It appears these produce MORE electricity as they are heated, and they get better over time, and there is much research opportunity here. That is all I have to say about that.

Thanks. My point exactly.

I'm old enough to still have difficulty picturing waves as particles, even though I'm well aware of the duality. At the wavelengths of gamma waves, it's not so hard...

In the very early '60s, I was life-testing cooking magnetrons as well as military ones. I once took some bacon to work, and left it in a cooking oven from 8 AM to 5PM. In the oven, there was also a closed glass flask with water flowing in and out to absorb the µwave energy, so we could measure the flow and ∆T, and thereby monitor the power output of the oven. At the end of the day the bacon was perfectly edible, and I did eat all of it! Once the bacon had been dehydrated, it was no longer heated by the microwaves, so no further cooking occurred. I've never tried it with a thicker chunk of meat...

The flask inside the oven tells me that the bacon never did absorb most of the energy. I suspect it is possible to burn most any food item in a microwave oven.

Example: One morning I forgot to put the milk into my mixture of oats, berries, and smart balance. Also spenda packet and cinnamon. I usually add 220 grams milk on 60 g oats, and about 100 grams berries, and about 2 ounces butter or smart balance.

That time, the bowl contents were plenty de-hydrated with "crunchy berries" after a "normal" cook time of 3:33 on full power. I went back and added the milk, and after the sizzle stopped I walked outside for a smoke. When I got back five minutes later, the mixture was re-hydrated, but tasted like toasted oats with baked berries, and was not the best breakfast I ever had. Thanks for responding.

Thanks for the link. My wife has told me some of those things from books that she has read.

have rarely seen half truths and outright bullshit expounded in that site more than a 9-11 conspiracy site. Half truths... for example... cooking "inside out" will damage nutrients." Or, "mother's intuition is best! Give me a break...what does intuition have to do with your choice of food? Most mothers bring their kids to MxxDxxxxxxx for a treat a couple of times a week. So much for mother's intuition! MxxDxxxxx and Wxxxxxxxx cheeseburgers are the main source of cancer in the west. (As a cancer victim I can provide lots and lots of proof of this. I recommend Dr. Beleveau's books on foods that fight cancers. Amazon has it. (okay, its NOT just MxxDxxxxxx...its our stupid Mother's Intuition doing that! Sorry MxxDxxxxxx, you just give the public what they "intuitively want!)

Well, I will grant you that searing the outside only will damage only those nutrients which are seared. Cooking inside will possibly damage, say vitamin C but none of lycophene (which kills cancer DEAD!) and a hundred other trace minerals, vitamines and compounds which don't care if you heat them up, but then, why are you microwaving a lemon anyway? What a microwave WILL do is kill germs. DEAD! And more important to me, it kills mould, mould spores, and mildew. DEAD! All of which are much more bad for you than a few trace nutrients are admittely good for you, and are already probably over represented in a North American diet.

Personally, anybody can confirm that most raw and paleo foods are good for you. (footnote 1) regarding Chicken and footnote 2 regarding the use of ammonia used to recover beef.

There is no reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater, any damage caused by microwaves is caused by omission (reducing the nutrients) rather than caused by inimical changes in the food being microwaved. They don't reduce it by much, often not at all.

(everything I said here can be googled for accuracy, or PM me for studies I have perused over the years)

footnote 1. Except for Chicken which are harvested by machines which open the contents of the guts along with the chicken, contaminating ALL chicken you get in the store. Or in the KXX. You seriously don't still eat KXX if you care about your health do you?

footnote 2. When a cow is disassembled, there is a lot of meat which is not able to be recovered, even for hamburger. Scraps off the bone and so forth. Ammonia is used to reduce the fat content of such scraps, the ammonia is recovered, the fat is sent to the soap factory, and the resultant meat (ALL of which is of course Angus meat after all) is sold as the cheap burger patties, an example of which might be the $1.29 burgers sold in MxxDxxxxxxxx. What does the ammonia do to the meat? Why does "mother's intuition" think this is good food?

(Oh I love this topic!)

wow! nice tee shot, I think you are in the middle of the fairway about 333 yards forward, and since this is a long par four, you only have a short wedge shot remaining. Go for it!

Well other than eating them raw, what is the alternative? We already know that frying and grilling create cancer causing chemicals to form, and even under some circumstances, so does roasting. Boil everything that must be cooked.

Yummy - bring me that stewed strip steak and boiled baked potatoe.

Aw, come on--pot roast and boiled baby reds ain't all that bad!

Would you use a good $10/pound strip steak for your pot roast?

Sand wedge time...

There are some myths I would humbly request to dispell. Since I am not a doctor in any way, this is a bit of a distillation of studies which affected me and my condition, chats with real doctors, oncologists and a lot of what I hope is clear thinking. I am fairly certain I am spouting the latest knowledge set, or at least, that part of it which has materially affected me.

The balance between Omega three and Omega six.

Not just buzz words. If your diet is loaded with Omega Threes, you don't get my kind of cancer. (My kind of cancer will kill one in six North Americans, so unless we change diet, we as a teen age food eating species are road kill) If your diet is loaded with Omega sixes, odds are you will get it. Your body needs both, and tends to process them at roughly the same rate (3's a little faster I have heard), leaving you with nothing by morning. Thats bad. Omega sixes come from cheeseburgers and fried bacon. Neither of which I plan to give up. You need them for the minerals and vitamines only Omega sixes can provide. But there is hope.....

If you consume twice as much Omega Threes, you will burn down the Omega sixes, leaving the nice Omega threes in place overnight to kill the tiny little cancers we all get every day. This is the trick...overbalance in favor of the threes, and enjoy your bacon.

This is the easy way to do this...eat wild fish. Tame fish, like "fillet o'fish" is usually farmed and fed Omega six loaded industrial butcher's waste, so it does not have the same benefits.

This was the Cole's notes version. it is actually much more complicated than that, but the answer is just as simple as I said above. Eat curry, eat fresh ground flax seed, quit smoking, walk around the block with your kids after supper, and eat a fish once a week. (or more)

Don't fall into the "yes but" game. We have all seen it. "Well, I could quit smoking, "yes-but" I could get hit by a car tomorrow." See the bad logic? Everybody does it...it requires a genuine effort at clear thinking to beat such bad logic. It has taken ME years, and I STILL fail from time to time. Yet I heard just this argument just this morning by a supposedly smart adult.

Good luck guys... you don't have to eat 'em raw (parasites, germs, moulds will get you if you do that. Besides, whats wrong with pot roast!!) just make sure you balance your diet in favor of killing cancer, keeping cholesterol out of your veins, and let the tobacco companies go broke. Drive sober, and forget about the Archie Comics teen age diet of cheeseburgers and processed sugar.

Okay, I am on the green now. A putt is all I have left. How about this putt... red wine is a powerful anti-oxidant. a glass of red wine a day will keep the oncologist away. Pizza will as well. (lycophene in the tomato sauce, and whatever fish the Italians put on it. I like squid myself, but then, I am more adventurous than the average.)

No need to give up fun just to eat, drink and play smart!!

It is still a big guessing game. I notice you put down cholesterol, but there is now a theory circulating, originating from an MD specializing in dementia treatment, in particular the disease known as Alzheimers, that cholesterol is necessary in rather large amounts to keep the brain healthy. He is not pushing red meats, but dairy and eggs are high on his brain healthy diet, as are certain oils. Now I've seen the results of this disease in some of my wife's relatives, and I think a good old heart attack is definitely a better option than that. I am nearing retirement age, but still go out and hammer my bicycle like a kid as fast and as often as I can, and figure either I'll keep the "pipes" opened up or that will be my end.

There in lies the dilemma we are in - there are multiple theories as to what we need to eat, and quite often what is deemed correct today, becomes taboo tomorrow. Chocolate and coffee come to mind almost immediately. Both are high in anti-oxidants, but how many of your parents were told to drop these entirely from their diets 30 years ago? I even remember a short period of time where seafoods were not recommended because of their fat content. Now what are the current theories on those fats? I believe you expounded quite a bit on them in your post. It is still a big guess, so I'll eat what seems like a normal diet for humans based on history, and sticking to the actual intended course of the original post, cook them as seems to work, not worry about what it might do to the food.

I "did" say it was the Cole's Notes version. Its all very complicated, and made MORE complicated by snake oil salesmen, woo-woo artists, vitamin sellers, and a new phenomonon...the Troll. Correlational studies and anecdotal evidence, as any clear thinking individual knows is trumped by real studies...yet people still believe that heavy doses of juice will save you. Did not save Steve Jobs. Delays to try alternative therapies can lead to late and ultimately fatal results. Yet many of my friends have done just that. Why do vegans get cancer? They do at the same rate as the rest of us. What are they doing wrong? Years of study (30 years by your stat!) has vindicated coffee yet again. Chocolate is and always has been good for you.

I just wanted to point out the safety valve is to create an imbalance between Omega three and Omega six. You really do have to get the threes good and high to trump the bad stuff. Other than that, I don't care about food fads. They are kind of fun actually.

Now what does that have to do with microwaves? Well, real scientific studies have shown that microwaves when used properly produce fewer oxidants than deep frying, searing, pan frying, smoking, preserving with random chemicals, and especially bar-be-queuing. Like all cooking, of course, they produce some. That is not to say all of these molecules are bad, its just like having a snake in your bathroom...you had better deal with it. The less bad stuff you have to deal with, the easier it is to consume the good stuff. This is not a food fad, or a "latest studies show" news report. This is the accumulated wisdom of the last sixty years. The next 60 will not change the basic layout I have outlined above, but will only fill in the gaps and will give time for real clinical studies to replace correlational studies.

I have spend enough of peoples time on this. Better people than me can add to the thread.

Yup..Genetics plays a huge role in Health, or lack of it. My mother came from a family of 7, all of who smoked and drank good old whiskey, every day, ate bacon grease gravy (called Sop, on the Prairie farm) with just about everything, had big gardens and ate out of them as they weeded, and picked them. They canned their own foods, grew and butchered their own meat, ate lots of sugared pies and cookies, lots of butter, and cheese, got up early and went to bed early…Oh--went to barn dances once a week to see their neighbors and shoot the breeze and catch up. They all lived well into their 80's and 90's, no cancer, with only touches of dementia being the worst of the ailments. I feel that the Drugs that are used by the medical community kill far more people than does a bad diet, and chemicals in food, along with poor exercise habits, and…. Genetic disposition.. My take only..

More proof they don't know the answers yet.

In 2003 I went to a doctor for a general check up and he ordered a cholesterol check. It was very very good - way below the danger points. At the time I ate pretty much anything I wanted to - eggs, hamburgers, cheese steaks, bacon....

I was foolish enough to start to believe the reports on what to eat and what not, as I wanted to keep my good rating. As my diet changed, my cholesterol got worse each year until the doctor decided I needed to be on a statin. Well, I'm one of the 1% that has that affect my heart beat rhythm. So he put me on a low fat, except Omega 3 oils diet and it got even worse.

I finally gave up and began eating like I did in 2003 and prior. I had a blood test 2 weeks ago, after eating deep fried eggs 5 times with buttered toast and a side of bacon, fried chicken several meals, and several fine steaks in the 2 weeks week prior and my cholesterol was back to the 2003 levels.

So much for the diet theories.

Most diet effectivity exist in people's minds, or the minds of the woo-woo nutbars like Dr. Oz and my Aunt Matilda. (Oh Billy, you have to become vegetarian to beat your cancer, I had a lump back in '74 and I went vegetarian and it went away. "So you had it biopsied then?" Oh no, I didn't bother. It just went away. "got it. You know five percent of virtually ALL cancers will go away on their own all by themselves. Some more, some less." Oh but turning vegetarian worked for me! "Of course it did Aunt Matilda, I never doubted you! Much.)

One in six Americans (and Canadians) will DIE from cancer caused by bad over balances of Omega Sixes versus Omega Threes. Compare to terrorism. A paleo diet might or might not help. Does the Paleo diet have fish in it? I know a REAL paleo diet has a lot of grubs, roots, fruits, shell fish (like snails and mussels) and a fair amount of road kill. I don't think I like the thousand year old diet. I over simplify, however in the face of the greatest medical D. E. A. T. H. event to affect North America since the discovery of the automobile, its simple enough for me. If I didn't have a foot in the coffin, I would suggest that a bio-medical engineering study be done, and see if the woo-woo snake oil salesmen (or at least, the Natural Food Stores) can be brought around as a force of good instead of just money.

That's our love of vegetable oils causing the imbalance. I use olive oil exclusively - no corn oil, sunflower oil, etc.

Having done some genealogical study of both sides of my family (back to the 6th century on one branch) I can fully agree with you. Some died of the "Plague", fever and such but most were extremely old compared to the current generation. For example I had a great-great something (how many I don't remember) grandfather. He worked in the coal mines till he retired at 55yo from too many broken bones. He then went to farming. He had a total of 3 wives. As each one would die he would marry another one. By the time he reached 87yo he had gone through 3 wives and 25 kids. All the wives died of delivery problems when a kid was born. He had great-grandchildren that were older than his children and grandchildren. Now that's a lot of man! Must have been the no microwave ovens.

Good Luck, Old Salt

If you ever have med lab tests run on your blood, and I do twice a year, you will find out the doctor distinguishes between about four types of cholesterol now. Only the high density one is good for you, but if you eliminate cholesterol from diet, your count of HDL will not be in the "healthy" range. I am one of those who can't seem to get the cholesterol down into the control range without dropping HDL out the bottom. I have good looking arteries, and low normal blood pressure (comparable to a 20-something, at the age of 60). I just don't have the stamina I used to have, but there again, being diabetic will do that to you.

Here's the deal: eat well, use a lot of berries, oats, and other fruits and vegetables. Limit red meat to a deck of cards sized portion 1-3 times a week, but be careful about the fatty meat. I take krill oil, and eat fish infrequently, even though I like fish just fine. The bottom line, don't worry, be happy. No man knows the measure of his days, that belongs to God. And do not be afraid, live each day as though today is all you have left, and you want to make as much good as you can, but stay at peace within yourself, and with others. Stress itself is why people die young, more often than not.

See my response 35. We are close to thinking similarly. Eat as humans have eaten for thousands of years and your diet is just about what that would be.

That as you have said, and this, "Receive that which the Lord provides with a thankful heart."

Unfortunately, the ways much of our food is grown and processed before we get it, makes it impossible to eat like humans have for thousands of years.

I do try to get as much as possible of my food from small agriculture, but when one is away from home nearly half the time, that is impossible, or at least impractical.

I do believe the kind and source of food is more important than the method of cooking, and hove no plans to limit my use of microwave heating.

Point noted - I have to wonder how many pesticides I consume eating fruit, nuts, and raw vegetables. Does a good scrubbing remove it all? How much gets into the plant and cannot be washed away? Should we be fearing this more than cancer causing chemicals created by grilling and frying?

If you want to start another long argument with two very adamant sides to it, mention genetically modified foods. I don't want to go there myself.

An apple from your local grocer, or the strawberries on the next display over are among the most "pesticide laden" fruit. That does not stop me from eating my daily apple. When looking at pesticide residual concentration on the skin of fruit, one must realise that chemical analysis has progressed to the point where a great mountain can be assembled from a mole hill. In the old days, ppm's were "good detection", then came ppb in the '70s-80's, but analysts have moved on into the ethereal realms where some consider a few ppt (part per 1,000,000,000,000) is detectable on a routine basis. What constitutes a significantly dangerous to health level? Who set the standard, and have they continued to lower the critierion (somewhat arbitrarily)?

As to GMO foods, go ahead and select which portion of the population to starve, or not. GMO grains have been being grown for years now, and the extra production seems worth it (or not). Stop using grains for ethanol production for fuel would be my first suggestion.

Eat all the GOM you want however for me I will try to avoid it 100% but not easy with no labeling, as for bigger yields it has never happened up until now and many GMO crops are down in yield plus we have super weeds. I have searched the web and the experts that have found dangers in GMO are far more numerous than the in favor. This is just one expert and I say expert since he was paid a handsome salary in that position for many years. http://foodrevolution.org/blog/former-pro-gmo-scientist/ In this matter I will trust European research over NA mostly due to the lesser amount of GMO influence. No one knows the real long term dangers as they surface much slower and are out of sight for some time but the real research is now coming on line. You are free to make that choice of food.

See those little holes in the door?

They represent a reverse Faraday cage.

The wavelength of microwave radiation is much larger than those holes, and keep the radiation inside the microwave.

OP's question was about the possible harm done to consumers by food cooked in the oven, not direct harm to the body by microwave radiation.

Quote: "People say that using of Microwave oven is harmful for human body as the high frequency raise of microwave oven destroy the internal structure of food."

I would also add in whatever danger exists from exposure to microwaves being emitted by my cellphone, while talking while driving while handling food....

At least when cell phones just started being popular items there was a real concern that the incidence of brain tumors would increase. Of course some people are so tied to their cell phones, it makes you wonder if the phone is the brain tumor.

Birds flying too close to radar antennae are cooked by the radiation, it was this that inspired the microwave oven. as long as the door fits properly and the mesh is undamaged, you should be safe. I say "should be" because I do not have the forward vision to know what new wrinkle is coming down the pike.

A buddy of mine in graduate school, once related the story of how in the U.S. Air Force, he was working inside one of the NORAD radar dishes with the antenna actuator (rotation) locked out and tagged out. A noob Lieutenant came in and removed the lock, and inserted the power board back in the slot, and energized. Not only was rotation active, but there was radar power being emitted. My friend would have been crushed, then cooked, or cooked, then crushed depending on how he "chose his poison", but the quick witted rascal took a screwdriver from his tool bad, and jammed the tracks on the dish long enough to either trip the circuit, or to escape. I do not think he actually struck his "superior" officer, but if I had been on the court martial panel, I would have voted for acquittal. What a great level of self-control he demonstrated. I would have gone ballistic.

When we would flash the "over the horizon" radar up on the pine tree line, a flock of birds would often fall down, sometimes quite a distance from the dome. They were rarely cooked, but more often, just shocked, and dis-oriented. I heard stories of techs warming themselves in front of the less powerful radars, but always assumed those stories to be urban legends. I had a caramilk bar melt in my breast pocket when the airplanes' FLIR was accidently turned on by a dummy who did not know that on jacks meant lost of things work that don't normally work on the ground. Didn't seem to have much power to me. ( BTW, you cannot melt chocolate in a microwave...you have to have some sort of water with it. Obviously the caramilk bar had enough! (I should try it) Or maybe it was just my overheated imagination and deep loathing and dislike for the tech playing with the breakers.

"... the airplanes' FLIR ..."

Why would FLIR - Forward-Looking InfraRed - matter whether it was turned on or not? FLIR is passive; basically it's a deep-IR camera and as such does not emit anything.

"Didn't seem to have much power to me."

Funny that.

Sorry, Forward Looking Light Radar. Also known as a dozen other things under another dozen acconyms. Just another stupid radar set on the front of the airplane to help it fly or land or whatever, which I thought was obvious.

That I was

Having a seniors moment.

You too? I save up and have my best ones here.

Spread the wealth.

Shake 'n' Bake.

• There is no danger in using a microwave oven and your comment that the "raise (rays) of microwave ovens destroy the internal structure of food" and "daily use the microwave oven, can be faced blood cancer." Are both totally wrong. Consider this, the quantum energy content of microwaves is about 1 million times less than that of ordinary light. In other words, they are too weak to break chemical bonds, damaged DNA, accordance cancer.
  

Sir:

That high-intensity microwave, or even radio waves are a known hazard to humans (due to internal heating of tissues) is a fact that neither you nor I can avoid. There was even considerable worry that in the early days of cellular telephony, the transmitted signal being emitted near the cranial cavity would result in brain injury or tumor incidence being multiplied. Based on the behavior of the younger generation, I cannot help but concur. I hold my cell phone usage to only that is which necessary, and not as a permanent appendage to my noggin.

I also agree with you that properly maintained, a microwave oven is no more harmful to human life than a television set, and probably less. Over-heating of food in a microwave is a cause for concern, just as is burning the meat in a skillet, or over charcoal, but I am no fan of steak tartar. I prefer the aroma of meat grilled over grape vine cuttings, as there is no sweeter smoke, although apple wood would be a near second.

Live long and prosper.

Couple of quick questions:

Why did persons working in microwaves labs during the early years have a much higher frequency of eye cataracts than those with no exposure?

During the early years of commercial and residential use of microwave ovens there was much concern and caution about leaks at the door. Standard test equipment and procedure was a small fluorescent lamp (I don't remember the power rating) about 6" long, moved naked near the edge of the door. If the lamp lit there was a leak. If the lamp did not light there was no leak. At that time there were many businesses with microwaves, for instance airline galleys, that used this test and found it to be sufficiently accurate. Why did the lamp light if the quantum energy was so low?

Good Luck, Old Salt

Great point Old Salt! If it lights up a fluorescent light, that is energy. By the way, all electromagnetic radiation has an electric and a magnetic oscillating field. The lamp was just the most handy detector anyone could imagine. Improvements in Faraday shielding over the years should have tamed this problem, outside the realm of dropping the thing and still expecting it to work.

If I had to choose between raw fish, and a fish cooked in a microwave, I would cook it.