As a freshman, everything in college is new to me. There are so many things to discover and so many things going on at the same time. The most thing I worried about before I came here was the condition of my dorm. So once I found out there is microwave oven in the dorm room, I was more than happy to use it as a resource for heating up my breakfast in the morning instead of going all the way to the dining hall. But after a couple of days, I started to concern about something else.
We all have heard of the legend some times during our life that standing too close to a microwave would cause cancer by absorbing the second-hand radiation. That really threatened me when I was a child. Now I have one right in my room, it levels up the anxiety sometimes. Are microwaves really a health hazard? In order to explore this topic, I decided to view this issue in two different angles: microwaves affect on food and affect on our body.
Before we went any depth into the discussion, it is better for us to understand what are microwaves first. The definition of Microwaves in Wikipedia basically summarised as it is a type of electromagnetic radiation which is similar to other types of waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, such as radio waves. The ranges and wavelengths of a microwave are shown by the image below.
(sources found on Google images)
From what I’ve learnt on a website, normally microwave oven works differently from a conventional oven. It allows the atoms of the food to vibrate much more frequently. In this way, it would heat up the molecules of the food through vibration so that the food is cooking evenly throughout instead of just the surface. This means that microwaves have the power to break down molecular and chemical bondings and rearrange them in the food. In this case, the body would digest the cells of the food differently, due to the chemical changes in the food cause by microwave. Because of this, people may concern about microwaves would be harmful to our food.
Articles such as Do Microwave Ovens Pose Health Risks said that microwaved food would lose nutrition. A study published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2007) found that broccoli loses vitamin C when microwaved. However, vitamin C is volatile in heat, in this case this study couldn’t really prove that microwaved food really loss its nutrition, but in other cases, microwaved food contains lack of water which changes it taste. There are als
o worries about microwaved food would be radioactive, therefore do bad to our body. One article shows that food exposed to microwave radiation dose not transfer to human bodies. The article also concludes that any radiation that emitted from the microwaves contain much less strength that what you might thought it would be. So it won’t cause any harm to human. The article also gave out an interesting statement that the rays could kill bacterias from the food, which makes it safer to eat.
Besides of the potential damage to food caused by microwaves. There are many people also worry about the radiation emitted from the microwave would harm our body. After I read through a large number of different studies and websites, I would conclude that although microwaves do emit radiation, but it isn’t the that harmful to us. In other words, those radiations aren’t DNA-damaging. Peter Varberg’s study (1970) looked at the correlation between cancer and microwave radiation exposure. He found very little evidence to support the causal relationship between this two elements, therefore concluded that microwaves do not cause cancer. This also means that the amount of radiation created by microwave is below the threshold of harming human.
To fulfil my curiosity, I did the research on two different angles, and now I have my answers. Microwave do not produce bad consequence to foods. Although it might changes its original taste, it’s already a nice option for people living in dorms like me to heat up their breakfast in a simple way. It won’t radioactive the food as well. Second, the amount of radiation produced by microwave isn’t strong enough to damage your DNA and your body. So if you be careful and follow the instructions when you are using the microwave oven, you’ll be fine.
The title of your blog made me very nervous at first and that is what got me hooked to keep reading! I unfortunately hate to cook so the microwave is my best friend. I make full blown meals with just using a microwave, so I was hoping that they do not affect our health negatively. I clicked on and read Peter Varbergs study that you had provided and was happy to see that there was very little correlation between microwaves and cancer. Although there is always a slight chance, everything now a days seems like it can give you cancer. Recently I have been hooked on reading up on what the FDA says about food I like, so I googled what they had to say about microwaves and here is the link to that if you would like to check it out! http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/RadiationEmittingProductsandProcedures/HomeBusinessandEntertainment/ucm116385.htm
First off, I just want to start off this comment by stating that the title of your article scared the crap out of me, especially considering the fact that we are all college students and the microwave is our primary source of heating food!
Now that I got that out of the way, I also wanted to just state that you did an excellent job on finding out that microwaves do not, in fact, give people cancer; that myth has been thriving off rumors for centuries, and I am glad I know the truth so I can spread it along. However, do you remember when we were talking about mechanisms in class and how certain things occurred because of them? Maybe you would find it interesting to learn the mechanisms behind why microwave radiation doesn’t hurt our DNA but has the capabilities to make the certain vitamins inside foods disappear. Just a suggestion!
Finally, I did a little research of my own (I read this article here ) and found that microwaves aren’t the only household appliances that produce minute levels of radiation. For example, did you know that wireless modems and cordless phones produce radiation? Crazy, right? Bananas have levels of radiation, too! However, interestingly enough, unlike the research you did on the microwave and the radiation levels emitted from them, the radiation and ELF radio frequencies coming from the appliances I mentioned and the ones in the article have been proven to have adverse effects on the human body. Therefore, next time you think of using a household appliance, ask yourself “Am I putting myself at risk?”
Here is that link!:
http://emwatch.com/emf-radiation-from-domestic-appliances/
Hi Xueyao,
Thanks for sharing with us, it was really helpful I also questioned the effects that a microwave could have on me and reached the same conclusion you reached in the essay, as I noticed that the taste of the changes after it was heated in the microwave . I just want to add something else, the microwave can be very dangerous to humans if they heated food on plastic plates or inside plastic bags, as plastic can melt over the food because of the heat. Please click on this link if you want to learn more about what you should and should not microwave.
http://lifehacker.com/what-should-and-shouldnt-i-microwave-1532532172
I am sorry I forget to include the link in the comment.
Hi Xueyao,
Thanks for sharing with us, it was really helpful I also questioned the effects that a microwave could have on me and reached the same conclusion you reached in the essay, as I noticed that the taste of the changes after it was heated in the microwave . I just want to add something else, the microwave can be very dangerous to humans if they heated food on plastic plates or inside plastic bags, as plastic can melt over the food because of the heat.