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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Is using a microwave oven harmful?
« on: 01/12/2011 17:41:05 »
You absolutely cannot be harmed by any microwave energy leaking from a door - that's likely to be less than 1 milliwatt / cm2. The threshold for feeling warmth from microwaves is 20 - 30 milliwatts / cm2 - I gave the keynote address on this topic in France in September at a major European microwave science conference.
I've deliberately exposed my arm, several times, to 10 kilowatts in an industrial microwave applicator - my arm got warm, then hot and became uncomfortable hot - when I pulled out of the applicator, there was no redness and no injury. So, the story of someone cooking himself by removing the oven door isn't true - the person would have felt so much heat, and possibly burned himself - the skin and maybe some muscle, but by them the pain would have been intolerable.
I'm a microwave scientist with 50 years of microwave heating experience.
I've deliberately exposed my arm, several times, to 10 kilowatts in an industrial microwave applicator - my arm got warm, then hot and became uncomfortable hot - when I pulled out of the applicator, there was no redness and no injury. So, the story of someone cooking himself by removing the oven door isn't true - the person would have felt so much heat, and possibly burned himself - the skin and maybe some muscle, but by them the pain would have been intolerable.
I'm a microwave scientist with 50 years of microwave heating experience.