Are Microwave ovens safe?

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That is horribly biased. There isn't any evidence to support all those claims he/she is trying to make.
 
I agree with David.

Right after you throw the microwave out the window, give away your car (global warming), get rid of your cell phone (causes brain cancer), ditto your computer monitor...ad nausium...:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Those "10 Reasons..." seem entirely unfounded and ridiculous.


Nothing like spreading panic through igorance.
 
Every year something that was never a problem before causes cancer. Last year it was potato chips, do I still eat Ruffles? Hell yeah I do! For a while now it has been cell phones, if you find me in public will it be in my pocket? Of course. Everyone is biased to some extent, which means you cannot take ONE source for fact on essentially anything. It is possible that microwaves are bad, but it is also possble the Coca Cola causes brain tumors and man has never been on the moon.

Look at it this way: until it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, there is no reason to act irrationally.
 
Important: Answerbag cannot guarantee the accuracy of answers submitted by members, and we recommend that you use common sense when following any advice found here.
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Translation: Someone could be making it up as the write it, so don't believe everything you read.


A quick search of this topic shows different health sites pushing this idea, but they seem to have the view that anything other than "natural" must be unhealthy. There is also a total lack of sources to back up a number of the points listed in the article.


To me it's either a "nut job" pushing this or a hoax.


Bob Diaz
 
I finally got to the bottom of this story... as it turns out... people were microwaving their cigarettes before they smoked 'em... some even rolled the filter-end in Sweet 'n Low.
 
Microwave heating is similar to normal IR heating, the key difference being that it has a longer wavelength (about 12cm) and higher frequency(Ghz range), this means that materials such as water whose molecules are diopoles (eg both +ve and -ve charged) get attracted to the charged oscillations produced by the magnetron, as the oscillations change rapidly, the molecules "bump" into each other as they shift alignment thus in turn generate heat.

What the article is suggesting is that somehow the microwave heating is different to IR heating such that it causes a radical shift in the chemical makeup, well its the first time I've heard anything like this, I don't buy this argument, I'm pretty sure after so many years of microwave use we would have at least heard about it.

Infact its actually better to mircowave food than use conventional heating in some instances, vegetables retain more nutrients than compared to IR heating for example.

The only dangers is uneven heating (however combination ovens exists), and fire due to electric sparks (because of metalic objects placed inside the oven).

EDIT::

Also maybe I missed it in the article, not one published paper to back any claims, that should at least raise some eye brows
 
MattinSTL said:
I finally got to the bottom of this story... as it turns out... people were microwaving their cigarettes before they smoked 'em... some even rolled the filter-end in Sweet 'n Low.
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Oh! Well, you know those artificial sweeteners. Definitly cancer-causing.*





*Actually...they may be. I don't know.
 
Wow, I was really surprised by the responses here. I mean, no one has heard about microwaves being bad for your health? Russia banned them for the longest time because of this fact.
 
Food should never be cooked in a microwave for the simple fact that it tastes horrible. Food cooked in a conventional oven will always taste better.

Whether a microwave is safe or not is another matter all together? Personally I use the microwave to heat up canned items or to defrost stuff but I rarely cook anything else in it.
 
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after_effects said:
Wow, I was really surprised by the responses here. I mean, no one has heard about microwaves being bad for your health? Russia banned them for the longest time because of this fact.
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Yeah, well, Russia also produced some of the most toxic industrially-polluted land expanses the world has ever seen. (And they probably didn't have the power grid to sustain widespread use of 700- to 1100-watt consumer products. Hmmm.)

As for the responses in this thread, it's because there isn't a shred of scientific evidence to back any of this list up:

Ten Reasons to Throw Out Your Microwave Oven

1. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent -- brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or demagnetizing the brain tissue].

2. The human body cannot metabolize, break down, the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.

3. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.

4. The effects of microwaved food byproducts are residual (long term, permanent) within the human body.

5. Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food are reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.

6. The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

7. Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increasing rate of colon cancer in America.

8. The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.

9. Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.

10. Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
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10. Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
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I don't recall hearing that one, dammit. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?!?!?! SCARE US TO DEATH?!?!?! Uh, what were we talking about?:huh:
 
Blaine said:
I agree with David.

Right after you throw the microwave out the window, give away your car (global warming), get rid of your cell phone (causes brain cancer), ditto your computer monitor...ad nausium...:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
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I couldn't have said it better myself.. And the fact is that so many things these days have the potential to kill you. There are risks in life. (And by the way, add computer in general.. radiation. Does that mean no more DVXUser for me? NOPE!, I'm not scared of life)
 
after_effects said:
Wow, I was really surprised by the responses here. I mean, no one has heard about microwaves being bad for your health? Russia banned them for the longest time because of this fact.
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If I'm not mistaken, they also banned things like freedom of speech, civil rights and a free market economy for a while. COmbine that with the technological wonders Chernobyl and the Kursk and I'm not so sure that's a great scientific baseline for making a decision.
 
I could see cell phones causing something bad. I guess we wont find out for a few decades though.
 
Weston said:
I could see cell phones causing something bad. I guess we wont find out for a few decades though.
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Actually Weston I just watched a Penn&Teller Bulls**t episode on cell phones. They basically showed how the wave lengths of a cell phone transmission are too large to do any damage to any cells in bodies. They also showed this one guy who is making a ton of money by selling a adapter you stick on the phone to protect you from the waves.
 
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