More than twenty years have passed since the moment when rumors appeared in the Russian press about the terrible danger of microwave ovens for humanity. Readers suddenly learned that the microwave can cause brain cancer, biological mutation, epileptic seizures, damage to the aura, and more. It's time to figure out which of these rumors are true and which are myths?
Land at gunpoint
Research on the effect of microwaves on human health began long before the invention of the first microwave - work in this area began soon after the appearance of the first powerful radio transmitters, and especially after the creation of radars.
If you look at the problem more broadly, it becomes clear that even without microwaves, a person is constantly exposed to various artificial and natural electromagnetic fields. For example, cities are full of satellite dishes that send and receive microwaves. In addition, microwave radiation generated by the Sun, Galaxy, volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes and other factors existed on Earth even before humans!
In general, the most powerful natural source of radiation is the Sun. Since a person from the time of his appearance under these conditions has managed to adapt to a given density of microwave radiation, it becomes clear that the radiation flux, comparable to the natural background, is clearly harmless to humans. And what kind of radiation is harmful to him?
To understand this, let's consider radiation from artificially created sources. With the help of a simple formula, we obtain a value of the microwave radiation density of about 0.0064 microwatts per square centimeter at the maximum of the antenna pattern of the Ostankino TV tower.
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Using the same formula, it turns out that the density of the microwave radiation inside the microwave oven is approximately equal to the radiation level of the TV tower. If we compare the value of the natural background with the obtained values, it will become clear that people all over the world have long been exposed to much higher fluxes (from the same TV towers), but no negative consequences were noticed.
List of rumors
As we remember from the school physics course, microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy that occupies a position on the frequency scale between radio waves and infrared radiation. In this regard, it is curious that there are very few people afraid of radio waves or infrared radiation, but there are thousands of microwave ones.
It is doubly curious that these same people can easily interact with medical equipment for microwave therapy, used in industries from dermatology to endocrinology, but they are deathly afraid of microwave ovens. Although there, and there, the radiation is the same, microwave.
The principle of operation of microwaves is based on the effect of high frequency waves on water molecules, which, absorbing energy, begin to vibrate, releasing heat. Microwave radiation in a working oven has no chance of leaving its limits: eddy currents displace radiation from the thickness of the metal walls of the case (radio technicians know this phenomenon as a skin effect), and a metal mesh or a semi-conductive coating on the glass of the door also closes this loophole.
One of the most naive myths about microwaves is that heating food there leads to the loss of vitamins and nutrients. However, their loss occurs with any heating: on a stove, fire or blowtorch, and the microwave oven is no more to blame here than all other devices.
The myth from the series “I heard the ringing, but I don’t know where it is” - about the appearance of trans fats and carcinogens in food as a result of heating it in a microwave oven. The authors of the myth, of course, do not specify that carcinogens appear when food is heated in oil (that is, simply put, when frying in a pan), while there is no oil in the microwave.
On the contrary, rapid heating in the oven increases the value of food, since it leads to the so-called heatstroke to microorganisms (staphylococci, E. coli, and so on) that do not survive it and die. As a result, the sterilization effect when heating food in the microwave is hundreds of times higher than with other heating methods.
The myth about the change in food at the molecular level and the appearance of active radicals (fragments of molecules) of food when heated is also untenable, since no molecules disintegrate when heated - microwave energy is simply not capable of this. The authors of the myth apparently confused the microwave with a medical X-ray.
One view of such a tower with antennas causes alarm among the population
The deadliest myth about microwave radiation is that by absorbing food from the stove, you increase the risk of mutations in your future children (and what good, and yourself). However, this myth is a simple test of knowledge of the school course of physics and biology. In order to induce changes in DNA, the furnace magnetron needs to emit X-rays or any other ionizing radiation instead of non-ionizing microwave radiation, which, of course, does not happen.
With regard to the relationship between the formation of cancerous tumors and microwave radiation, it was not so long ago that Australian scientists under the leadership of radiology specialist Dr. Peter French, chief researcher at the Center for Immunology at the St. Vincent Clinic in Sydney, put forward a scientific hypothesis about the effect of microwave radiation on the brain. A report published in the scientific journal Differentiation states that regular exposure to radiation acts as repetitive stress, leading to continuous production of heat shock proteins in cells.
Heat shock proteins are present in every cell and repair other proteins that are degraded by environmental influences. Their formation is part of the cell's normal response to stress. However, if heat shock proteins are produced too frequently or for too long, it causes cancer and increases resistance to the action of anti-cancer drugs.
The hypothesis of Australian scientists was answered by American scientists who also study the thermal mechanism of cells. They found that brain cancer can only be earned through microwave radiation - for example, from the antenna of a cell phone - if you talk on it continuously for 600 years. So humanity will have time to colonize the nearest stars before you get cancer from the microwave, the radiation in which is an order of magnitude less than the radiation of a cell phone.
Non-peaceful microwaves
Finally, the harmlessness of a much more powerful radiation than in a microwave oven is confirmed by the use of a special non-lethal weapon - a microwave cannon, or, as it is officially called, an "active resistance system" (ADS).
It is a satellite-like dish mounted on a military off-road vehicle or an infantry fighting vehicle and is capable of causing a burn sensation at a distance of up to 500 meters.
The volunteers on whom the Air Force Research Laboratory tested ADS, admitted that during the "shot" it seems that you are standing at an open blast furnace and your clothes are about to catch fire.
The creators of the system claim that the microwave gun was tested on 10,000 volunteers and none of them received injuries requiring medical attention.
Yuri DANILOV
