So do microwaves casue cancer??

Lets say you warm-up your coffee, or microwave some oatmeal,carrots, ect... Would that casue any signifcant damage to your body??? If so how?? Do you loose all the nutrients available in your food. Like carotene for example?? Also if someone can explain how microwaves actually casue cancer/problems to the human body. Is there any evidence?

I think they may. i rarely use one, though when i do i put in whatever i need to heat and get well away from it.

Ive seen some people lean on the bench and stare into their microwave oven to watch the food cook, and their kids see it so they do it too.

I think if you do not stand near the magnatron while its doing its thing, it cant hurt.

Exposure to the actual microwaves them selves will do you harm, although small doses from a microwave shouldn't be too bad... But you don't was it every day - more powerful sources of microwave energy are a different matter.

But drinking a coffee warmed up in a microwave will do you no harm at all - the microwave radiation does not remain in the coffee or whatever else - it's gamma radiation, it actually travels at the speed of light! - it don't hang around!

The microwaves heat the food by giving the atoms energy causing them to vibrate and friction is created - that's how they cook from the inside out, where as a normal over, they heat has to permeate from the out side in.

But no - microwave ovens are safe - I must do half my cooking in them! - I'm some what of an expert microwave cook - no just banging something in for the time it says on the packet for me!

Microwave transmitters? Totally different ball game - your body will be exposed to that radiation - but the oven if it's working properly won't transmit them with the door open.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
Do you loose all the nutrients available in your food. Like carotene for example??

edit - well I'm not sure about all foods (and defo not the microwave ready meals) but steaming veg in the microwave is actually one of the best healthiest ways of doing it - the less time they spend cooking the better to keep the good stuff in.

[edit on 1/10/2009 by Now_Then]

I dont think overall microwaves are that safe. Thier was a post here, burried on ATS i read a yar or 2 ago..some teen did a science project, with microwaved water, and non microwaved water, and 2 plants. The plant fe non microwaved water grew..the microwaved water plant, wiltterd\ed and died and no she didnt put hot scolding water on the pant. it was room temperature(she let it cool down). turns out, microwaving food, leeches and kills the noureshment in food*

reply to post by Now_Then


I do remember reading somewhere about it saying it keeps the nutrients in, but i didn't know if that was for pre-made microwave dinners, or fresh veggies.

i saw some science thing about this, apparently if what your microwaving has a high water content then there is minimal leakage of radiation, if you were to microwave something dry or with very little water there is a higher rate of radiation leakage hence why on microwave instruction manuals they tell you not to stand in front of it or look directly into the microwave, at least the manuals do here in Australia.

allegedly microwaves also tend to kill any nutritional value of all foods cooked this way but they also kill bad bacteria too which is a plus i guess.

I have a small radiation tester a good while back and tried using it on the microwave at around a foot or so away. Obviously, the findings are going nuts at that distance. When I turned the microwave off, it was still emitting a significant amount of radiation signal. The worst part is that when I went upstairs and placed the tester adjacent to where the microwave is on the ground floor with 3 feet of floor in between and it was still detecting significant amounts of radiation even when the microwave is turned off already. Took a while before the radiation dissipated.

The radiation is quite strong overall but I don't know nor remember if it could be strong enough to cause cancer since most of the time we're bombarded by radiation in the first place although much much weaker but continuous.

reply to post by Unregistered


Are you serious??? Its that strong?

I believe them to be really bad and so ditched mine about 6 years ago.
I was just reading some microwave info on Jim Corr's website yesterday actually.He provides this link:

www.createyourhealthyhome.com...

(i apologise if i've not done the link thing properly)

Originally posted by scubagravy
I think they may. i rarely use one, though when i do i put in whatever i need to heat and get well away from it.

Ive seen some people lean on the bench and stare into their microwave oven to watch the food cook, and their kids see it so they do it too.

I think if you do not stand near the magnatron while its doing its thing, it cant hurt.

you'd sh#t a brick if you saw my microwave. Not only do I look into it when it's cooking, but the top of the microwave has sort of popped out, and I can see the lights shining out from the open casing.

My microwave is proper dangerous

Anyway, everyone knows that everything tastes rubbish from one of them things. I only really use it to heat milk for hot chocolate, or reheat food.

Originally posted by Unregistered When I turned the microwave off, it was still emitting a significant amount of radiation signal.

That is impossible.

If there is no power going to your microwave, it cannot possibly be emitting radio frequency energy.
Whatever you are picking up with your detector cannot be coming from your microwave oven.

########

And as to the previous poster that suggested plants do not like microwaved water, they almost certainly don't.
They will not like water that has been boiled by any other method either.

Heating water drives out the gasses and destroys the freshness.
Those small bubbles you see in your saucepan just before the water boils should tell you something.

Water sitting out in the sun suffers too. It goes stagnant and is not good for anything living, It will sure kill fish..

An icy cold flowing stream tastes great, because it is charged with oxygen, nitrogen and other gasses.

That all has nothing to do with microwaves.
Heat from any source will do the exact same damage to water.

Not sure if microwave oven cause cancer,but I have read that they massivley degrade the amount of nutrients in any food cooked in them-although regular cooking reduces nutrients as well,but I don't know if its by the same amount as mircowaves.

I have always been interested by the fact that microwave ovens were banned in the Soviet union,until the wall came down.I am not sure why,although I suspect its because they could easily be turned into weapons(like they did at the moscow US embassy during the cold war).
They fired microwaves through the walls at the US personnel,some of whom did die from cancer.

Whatever method of cooking you use does degrade nutrient content though-raw food is best.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


They use microwave ovens as small dirty bombs? That's mad!!

Your smoke detectors will contain more radioactive material - and they will fly better like a fresbee! Seriously did they do that?? I would love to see that link.

So far as I understand a microwave oven it is simply a specialised radio transmitter, it pumps radiowaves out at a wavelength that falls within the microwave range - tuned to most effectively heat food... If there is no power there are no radio waves... The only danger will be from a broken one... The casing is built like a Faraday cage, they are safe! They do not contain any really radioactive materials.

They are dangerous it you put certain things in them tho - and thanks to certain television shows on cable TV I now know of any number of ways to make a very impressive fireball that would certainly destroy any kitchen - and I would not have to leave the house to get my materials

But your much more likely to get cancer from the ready meals and all the chemical preservatives and flavourings they stuff them with rather than the actual microwave.

reply to post by Now_Then


Here ya go:

"Why not go public and embarrass them for a change?" demanded an irate former Moscow diplomat last week. He was referring to Washington's curious reticence about the great Moscow microwave furor. Last month the U.S. confirmed that for some 15 years the Soviet Union has been beaming microwaves at the hulking nine-story U.S. embassy on Moscow's Tchaikovsky Street (TIME, Feb. 23). The purpose: to jam the sophisticated electronic monitoring devices inside and on the roof of the building. (An earlier theory, now taken less seriously, was that the microwaves were designed to activate or charge up Soviet bugs planted within the embassy.) The U.S. has also confirmed that last May the microwave dosage suddenly increased sharply.

From Time magazine,1976

www.time.com...

The article goes on to say rumours existed about the microwaves causing cancer,although they did not say that was the purpose of them.
A few people did get cancer at the embassy though,although it can't be pinned on the microwaves apparently.
I have always wondered what the real story is there though.

Oh dear...Just checked out the history of microwaves ovens.It appears they were invented by the Nazis:

Microwave cooking ovens were originally researched and developed by German scientists to support mobile operations during the invasion of the Soviet Union. Had they perfected electronic equipment to prepare meals on a massive scale, the Nazis could have eliminated the logistical problems connected with cooking fuels while producing edible products in far less time than they could using traditional campfires.

omega.twoday.net...

I found this about the Russians on the same page:

The Russians - who have done the most diligent research into the biological effects of microwave ovens - have outlawed their use and issued an international warning about the biological and environmental damage that can result from the use of this and similar-frequency electronic apparatus.

I'll try to find the "international warning" they speak of.(They have been allowed microwaves in post Soviet Russia.)

Microwave radiation is a carcinogenic factor. However, all ovens are subjects to strict standards and testing. Unless you modify or damage your oven, I'm pretty sure it's safe (radiation doesn't leak).

And UV tanning devices are 1000% more dangerous anyway!

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Ahh - I see, I had a mental image of a huge catapult slinging microwave ovens... I guess it's cos you said 'fired microwaves', and I'm quite a simple childish person!

Yep those uncontained ones could do you damage

www.createyourhealthyhome.com...

Is this website credible??

reply to post by Maddogkull


I can't be sure.
I've looked things up,Googled and whatnot and i'm picking up lots of info that seems to corroborate what this site is saying,which i feel speaks volumes.
But,i just haven't chanced upon the 'science' behind all of this so,i'll keep looking for now

Sure electromagnetic microwave energy produces some cancers, that has been known for decades. So will X rays. and ultraviolet light.

But food that has been microwave heated, is just hot food, the food itself does not radiate radio waves after it has been removed from the oven..

It is kind of like saying that baking bread over a camel dung fire is healthy.
Bread cooked in an electric oven will electrocute you when eaten..
Bread cooked in a gas oven will asphyxiate you when eaten.
Anything cooked in a microwave will radiate you with microwaves when eaten.
Silly, huh ?

Heat is just heat.
And all a microwave oven does is heat things up.

reply to post by Now_Then

But drinking a coffee warmed up in a microwave will do you no harm at all - the microwave radiation does not remain in the coffee or whatever else - it's gamma radiation, it actually travels at the speed of light! - it don't hang around!

Ummmmm...It's called a MICROWAVE...it emits MICROWAVE radiation. That is too say electromagnetic waves having wavelengths of 1mm-1m. Don't scare people telling them that it is gamma radiation. DUH!


[edit on 2-10-2009 by Longtimegone]