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I got so worried and worked up about my friend's admonishment against using microwave ovens that I couldn't get to sleep. So I got out of bed and onto the Internet and spent three hours researching. Here's what I came up with.
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Thanks for your concern, Rob. I read the article with, I have to admit, a large degree of skepticism. So I started googling. I won't address the entire article, just three points in it.
First, "The 'studies' that virtually every book and Internet site use to condemn cooking in microwave ovens emanate from two sources that for all intents and purposes don't exist." [....] [One purported] study is early microwave oven research by a Swiss scientist named Hans Hertel, who found negative changes in the blood of people who ate microwave-cooked food. This study has never actually been seen by anybody, as far as can be ascertained through searches on the Internet, and according to some, it was neither peer reviewed nor published. Though it is not available anywhere for scrutiny, its 'information' is widely reproduced, all based solely on hearsay." (1)
Second, the claim that Russians have banned the use of microwave ovens because of the purported hazards just seemed absurd on its face. And some research bore this out. No one who claims this has offered any direct, irrefutable sources for that claim. In fact, just the opposite has been shown, that, indeed, Russia has never banned the use of microwave ovens.
"[A] second study has to do with alleged Russian research originating right after World War II and culminating, in 1976, with the banning of microwave ovens because of their supposed dangers. Not only is this particular study also unavailable for viewing, the author has purportedly changed his name and disappeared. Not only are microwave ovens currently in use everywhere in Russia, it appears that they were never banned." (2)
Third, the article claims that the Nazis invented the oven. Obvious "scare tactic" of liking microwave ovens to the Nazis notwithstanding, the claim just seemed erroneous to me. I'd always heard it was invented in America. Indeed:
"In 1945 the specific heating effect of a high-power microwave beam was accidentally discovered by Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine. Employed by Raytheon at the time he noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a candy bar he had in his pocket. The first food deliberately cooked with Spencer's microwave was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters. [citations in original article] To verify his finding, Spencer created a high density electromagnetic field by feeding microwave power from a magnetron into a metal box from which it had no way to escape. When food was placed in the box with the microwave energy, the temperature of the food rose rapidly." (3)
Life in our modern world is fraught with dangers and hazards. It has been shown that long-term exposure to electromagnetic fields is harmful to humans. Every person living in civilized countries is constantly exposed to electromagnetic fields, indeed, right inside their homes where they are cocooned inside electrical wires and appliances that generate electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, electricity itself can be deadly if it is used improperly and unsafely. Should we stop using electricity and electrical appliances because they might hurt us? "They'll have to pry my Electrolux from my cold, dead hands."
And then there's cell phones. Some people claim that exposure to cell phone radiation is gravely harmful. Studies by the World Health Organization and other agencies is ongoing and, at this writing, not conclusive. Should we give up the use of cell phones because using them might be harmful?
Driving motor vehicles is also, obviously, very hazardous. People are injured and killed in great numbers on a daily basis. Should we give up driving and being passengers in motor vehicles to prevent getting into accidents?
So, yes, for the time being, we'll continue to use and enjoy our new microwave oven. If we start growing extra limbs, or the limbs we have start falling off, then we'll stop using it.
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Sources:
(1)
http://www.baumancollege.org/commun...st/203-microwave-ovens-what-do-we-really-know
(2) ibid.
(3)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
