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The Hidden Hazards Of Microwave Cooking by Anthony Wayne and Lawrence Newell
Is it possible that millions of people are ignorantly sacrificing their health in exchange for the convenience of microwave ovens? Why did the Soviet Union ban the use of microwave ovens in 1976? Who invented microwave ovens, and why? The answers to these questions may shock you into throwing your microwave oven in the trash.
Over 90% of American homes have microwave ovens used for meal preparation. Because microwave ovens are so convenient and energy efficient, as compared to conventional ovens, very few homes or restaurants are without them. In general, people believe that whatever a microwave oven does to foods cooked in it doesn't have any negative effect on either the food or them.
Of course, if microwave ovens were really harmful, our government would never allow them on the market, would they? Would they? Regardless of what has been "officially" released concerning microwave ovens, we have personally stopped using ours based on the research facts outlined in this article.
The purpose of this report is to show proof - evidence - that microwave cooking is not natural, nor healthy, and is far more dangerous to the human body than anyone could imagine.
However, the microwave oven manufacturers, Washington City politics, and plain old human nature are suppressing the facts and evidence. Because of this, people are continuing to microwave their food - in blissful ignorance - without knowing the effects and danger of doing so.
How do microwave ovens work?
Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy, like light waves or radio waves, and occupy a part of the electromagnetic spectrum of power, or energy. In our modern technological age, microwaves are used to relay long distance telephone signals, television programs, and computer information across the earth or to a satellite in space. But the microwave is most familiar to us as an energy source for cooking food.
Every microwave oven contains a magnetron, a tube in which electrons are affected by magnetic and electric fields in such a way as to produce micro wavelength radiation at about 2450 Mega Hertz (MHz) or 2.45 Giga Hertz (GHz). This microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food.
All wave energy changes polarity from positive to negative with each cycle of the wave. In microwaves, these polarity changes happen millions of times every second. Food molecules - especially the molecules of water - have a positive and negative end in the same way a magnet has a north and a south polarity.
In commercial models, the oven has a power input of about 1000 watts of alternating current. As these microwaves generated from the magnetron bombard the food, they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second.
All this agitation creates molecular "friction", which heats up the food. This unusual type of heating also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them.
By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.
A microwave oven produces a spiked wavelength of energy with all the power going into only one narrow frequency of the energy spectrum. Energy from the sun operates in a wide frequency spectrum.
Many terms are used in describing electromagnetic waves, such as wavelength, amplitude, cycle and frequency:
Wavelength determines the type of radiation, i.e. radio, X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, etc. Amplitude determines the extent of movement measured from the starting point. Cycle determines the unit of frequency, such as cycles per second, Hertz, Hz, or cycles/second. Frequency determines the number of occurrences within a given time period (usually 1 second); The number of occurrences of a recurring process per unit of time, i.e. the number of repetitions of cycles per second. Radiation = spreading energy with electromagnetic waves We've all been told that microwaving food is not the same as irradiating it (radiation "treatment"). The two processes are supposed to use completely different waves of energy and at different intensities.
No FDA or officially released government studies have proven current microwaving usage to be harmful, but we all know that the validity of studies can be - and are sometimes deliberately - limiting. Many of these studies are later proven to be inaccurate. As consumers, we're supposed to have a certain degree of common sense to use in judgment.
Take the example of eggs and how they were "proven" to be so harmful to our health in the late 1960's. This brought about imitation egg products and big profits for the manufacturers, while egg farms went broke.
Now, recent government sponsored studies are saying that eggs are not bad for us after all. So, whom should we believe and what criteria should we use to decide matters concerning our health?
Since it's currently published that microwaves - purportedly - don't leak into the environment, when properly used and with approved design, the decision lies with each consumer as to whether or not you choose to eat food heated by a microwave oven or even purchase one in the first place.
Motherly instincts are right
On a more humorous side, the "sixth sense" every mother has is impossible to argue with. Have you ever tried it? Children will never win against a mother's intuition. It's like trying to argue with the arm - appearing out of nowhere - that pinned you to the back of the seat when your mother slammed on the brakes.
Many of us come from a generation where mothers and grandmothers have distrusted the modern "inside out" cooking they claimed was "not suitable" for most foods. My mother refused to even try baking anything in a microwave.
She also didn't like the way a cup of coffee tasted when heated in a microwave oven. I have to fully agree and can't argue either fact. Her own common sense and instincts told her that there was no way microwave cooking could be natural nor make foods "taste they way they're supposed to".
Reluctantly, even my mother succumbed to re-heating leftovers in a microwave due to her work schedule before she retired.
Many others feel the same way, but they're considered an "old fashioned" minority dating back to before the 1970's when microwaves first overwhelmed the market.
Like most young adults at the time, as microwave ovens became commonplace, I chose to ignore my mother's intuitive wisdom and joined the majority who believed microwave cooking was far too convenient to ever believe anything could be wrong with it.
Chalk one up for mom's perception, because even though she didn't know the scientific, technical, or health reasons why, she just knew that microwave ovens were not good based on how foods tasted when they were cooked in them. She didn't like the way the texture of the microwaved food changed either.
Microwaves unsafe for baby's milk
A number of warnings have been made public, but have been barely noticed. For example, Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, published the following in 1989:
"Although microwaves heat food quickly, they are not recommended for heating a baby's bottle. The bottle may seem cool to the touch, but the liquid inside may become extremely hot and could burn the baby's mouth and throat.
Also, the buildup of steam in a closed container, such as a baby bottle, could cause it to explode. Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins.
In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed. Warming a bottle by holding it under tap water, or by setting it in a bowl of warm water, then testing it on your wrist before feeding may take a few minutes longer, but it is much safer."
Dr. Lita Lee of Hawaii reported in the December 9, 1989 Lancet:
"Microwaving baby formulas converted certain trans-amino acids into their synthetic cis-isomers. Synthetic isomers, whether cis-amino acids or trans-fatty acids, are not biologically active.
Further, one of the amino acids, L-proline, was converted to its d-isomer, which is known to be neurotoxic (poisonous to the nervous system) and nephrotoxic (poisonous to the kidneys). It's bad enough that many babies are not nursed, but now they are given fake milk (baby formula) made even more toxic via microwaving."
Microwaved blood kills patient
In 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma concerning the hospital use of a microwave oven to warm blood needed in a transfusion. The case involved a hip surgery patient, Norma Levitt, who died from a simple blood transfusion.
It seems the nurse had warmed the blood in a microwave oven. This tragedy makes it very apparent that there's much more to "heating" with microwaves than we've been led to believe. Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in microwave ovens. In the case of Mrs. Levitt, the microwaving altered the blood and it killed her.
It's very obvious that this form of microwave radiation "heating" does something to the substances it heats. It's also becoming quite apparent that people who process food in a microwave oven are also ingesting these "unknowns".
Because the body is electrochemical in nature, any force that disrupts or changes human electrochemical events will affect the physiology of the body. This is further described in Robert O. Becker's book, The Body Electric, and in Ellen Sugarman's book, Warning, the Electricity Around You May Be Hazardous to Your Health.
Scientific evidence and facts
In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at 3(2): 43, it states
"A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the introduction into the human body of molecules and energies, to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause harm than good.
Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking food since the discovery of fire. Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based.
Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit.
Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.
One short-term study found significant and disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various combinations of the same foods cooked different ways.
All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin levels decreased and over all white cell levels and cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased.
Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food."
The Swiss clinical study
Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel, who is now retired, worked as a food scientist for many years with one of the major Swiss food companies that do business on a global scale. A few years ago, he was fired from his job for questioning certain processing procedures that denatured the food.
In 1991, he and a Lausanne University professor published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means.
An article also appeared in issue 19 of the Journal Franz Weber in which it was stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood. The research paper itself followed the article. On the cover of the magazine there was a picture of the Grim Reaper holding a microwave oven in one of his hands.
Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out a quality clinical study on the effects microwaved nutrients have on the blood and physiology of the human body.
His small but well controlled study showed the degenerative force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in them. The scientific conclusion showed that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food; and, changes took place in the participants' blood that could cause deterioration in the human system.
Hertel's scientific study was done along with Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry.
In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the study received one of the following food variants on an empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted in a microwave oven; and (8) the same vegetables cooked in the microwave oven.
Once the volunteers were isolated, blood samples were taken from every volunteer immediately before eating. Then, blood samples were taken at defined intervals after eating from the above milk or vegetable preparations.
Significant changes were discovered in the blood samples from the intervals following the foods cooked in the microwave oven. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values.
Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants. Each of these indicators pointed to degeneration.
Additionally, there was a highly significant association between the amount of microwave energy in the test foods and the luminous power of luminescent bacteria exposed to serum from test persons who ate that food.
This led Dr. Hertel to the conclusion that such technically derived energies may, indeed, be passed along to man inductively via eating microwaved food.
According to Dr. Hertel,
"Leukocytosis, which cannot be accounted for by normal daily deviations, is taken very seriously by hemotologists. Leukocytes are often signs of pathogenic effects on the living system, such as poisoning and cell damage.
The increase of leukocytes with the microwaved foods were more pronounced than with all the other variants. It appears that these marked increases were caused entirely by ingesting the microwaved substances.
This process is based on physical principles and has already been confirmed in the literature. The apparent additional energy exhibited by the luminescent bacteria was merely an extra confirmation.
There is extensive scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct microwave radiation on living systems. It is astonishing, therefore, to realize how little effort has been taken to replace this detrimental technique of microwaves with technology more in accordance with nature.
Technically produced microwaves are based on the principle of alternating current. Atoms, molecules, and cells hit by this hard electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse polarity 1-100 billion times a second.
There are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to withstand such a violent, destructive power for any extended period of time, not even in the low energy range of milliwatts.
Of all the natural substances - which are polar - the oxygen of water molecules reacts most sensitively. This is how microwave cooking heat is generated - friction from this violence in water molecules.
Structures of molecules are torn apart, molecules are forcefully deformed, called structural isomerism, and thus become impaired in quality. This is contrary to conventional heating of food where heat transfers convectionally from without to within.
Cooking by microwaves begins within the cells and molecules where water is present and where the energy is transformed into frictional heat.
In addition to the violent frictional heat effects, called thermic effects, there are also athermic effects which have hardly ever been taken into account. These athermic effects are not presently measurable, but they can also deform the structures of molecules and have qualitative consequences.
For example the weakening of cell membranes by microwaves is used in the field of gene altering technology. Because of the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby neutralizing the electrical potentials, the very life of the cells, between the outer and inner side of the cell membranes.
Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi and other microorganisms. The natural repair mechanisms are suppressed and cells are forced to adapt to a state of energy emergency - they switch from aerobic to anaerobic respiration. Instead of water and carbon dioxide, the cell poisons hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide are produced."
The same violent deformations that occur in our bodies, when we are directly exposed to radar or microwaves, also occur in the molecules of foods cooked in a microwave oven.
This radiation results in the destruction and deformation of food molecules. Microwaving also creates new compounds, called radiolytic compounds, which are unknown fusions not found in nature. Radiolytic compounds are created by molecular decomposition - decay - as a direct result of radiation.
Microwave oven manufacturers insist that microwaved and irradiated foods do not have any significantly higher radiolytic compounds than do broiled, baked or other conventionally cooked foods.
The scientific clinical evidence presented here has shown that this is simply a lie. In America, neither universities nor the federal government have conducted any tests concerning the effects on our bodies from eating microwaved foods. Isn't that a bit odd?
They're more concerned with studies on what happens if the door on a microwave oven doesn't close properly. Once again, common sense tells us that their attention should be centered on what happens to food cooked inside a microwave oven.
Since people ingest this altered food, shouldn't there be concern for how the same decayed molecules will affect our own human biological cell structure?
Industry's action to hide the truth
As soon as Doctors Hertel and Blanc published their results, the authorities reacted. A powerful trade organization, the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatuses for Households and Industry, known as FEA, struck swiftly in 1992.
They forced the President of the Court of Seftigen, Canton of Bern, to issue a "gag order" against Drs. Hertel and Blanc. In March 1993, Dr. Hertel was convicted for "interfering with commerce" and prohibited from further publishing his results. However, Dr. Hertel stood his ground and fought this decision over the years.
Not long ago, this decision was reversed in a judgment delivered in Strasbourg, Austria, on August 25, 1998. The European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision.
The European Court of Human Rights also ruled that the "gag order" issued by the Swiss court in 1992 against Dr. Hertel, prohibiting him from declaring that microwave ovens are dangerous to human health, was contrary to the right to freedom of expression. In addition, Switzerland was ordered to pay Dr. Hertel compensation.
Carcinogens in microwaved food
In Dr. Lita Lee's book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation - Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September 1991 issues of Earthletter, she stated that every microwave oven leaks electro-magnetic radiation, harms food, and converts substances cooked in it to dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products.
Further research summarized in this article reveal that microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously imagined.
The following is a summary of the Russian investigations published by the Atlantis Raising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon. Carcinogens were formed in virtually all foods tested.
No test food was subjected to more microwaving than necessary to accomplish the purpose, i.e., cooking, thawing, or heating to insure sanitary ingestion. Here's a summary of some of the results:
Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well-known carcinogen. Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens. Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic substances. Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens. Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables. Decrease in nutritional value Russian researchers also reported a marked acceleration of structural degradation leading to a decreased food value of 60 to 90% in all foods tested. Among the changes observed were: Deceased bio-availability of vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics factors in all food tested. Various kinds of damaged to many plant substances, such as alkaloids, glucosides, galactosides and nitrilosides. The degradation of nucleo-proteins in meats. Microwave sickness is discovered
The Russians did research on thousands of workers who had been exposed to microwaves during the development of radar in the 1950's. Their research showed health problems so serious that the Russians set strict limits of 10 microwatts exposure for workers and one microwatt for civilians.
In Robert O. Becker's book, The Body Electric, he described Russian research on the health effects of microwave radiation, which they called "microwave sickness." On page 314, Becker states:
"It's [Microwave sickness] first signs are low blood pressure and slow pulse. The later and most common manifestations are chronic excitation of the sympathetic nervous system [stress syndrome] and high blood pressure.
This phase also often includes headache, dizziness, eye pain, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, stomach pain, nervous tension, inability to concentrate, hair loss, plus an increased incidence of appendicitis, cataracts, reproductive problems, and cancer.
The chronic symptoms are eventually succeeded by crisis of adrenal exhaustion and ischemic heart disease [the blockage of coronary arteries and heart attacks]."
According to Dr. Lee, changes are observed in the blood chemistries and the rates of certain diseases among consumers of microwaved foods. The symptoms above can easily be caused by the observations shown below. The following is a sample of these changes:
Lymphatic disorders were observed, leading to decreased ability to prevent certain types of cancers.
An increased rate of cancer cell formation was observed in the blood. Increased rates of stomach and intestinal cancers were observed. Higher rates of digestive disorders and a gradual breakdown of the systems of elimination were observed.
Microwave research conclusions The following were the most significant German and Russian research operations facilities concerning the biological effects of microwaves:
The initial research conducted by the Germans during the Barbarossa military campaign, at the Humbolt-Universitat zu Berlin (1942-1943); and,
>From 1957 and up to the present [until the end of the cold war], the Russian research operations were conducted at: the Institute of Radio Technology at Kinsk, Byelorussian Autonomous Region; and, at the Institute of Radio Technology at Rajasthan in the Rossiskaja Autonomous Region, both in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.
In most cases, the foods used for research analysis were exposed to microwave propagation at an energy potential of 100 kilowatts/cm3/second, to the point considered acceptable for sanitary, normal ingestion. The effects noted by both German and Russian researchers is presented in three categories:
Category I, Cancer-Causing Effects Category II, Nutritive Destruction of Foods Category III, Biological Effects of Exposure
CATEGORY I
CANCER-CAUSING EFFECTS
[The first two points of Category I are not readable from our report copy. The remainder of the report is intact.]
3. Creation of a "binding effect" to radioactivity in the atmosphere, thus causing a marked increase in the amount of alpha and beta particle saturation in foods;
4. Creation of cancer causing agents within protein hydrolysate compounds* in milk and cereal grains [*these are natural proteins that are split into unnatural fragments by the addition of water];
5. Alteration of elemental food-substances, causing disorders in the digestive system by unstable catabolism* of foods subjected to microwaves [*the metabolic breakdown process];
6. Due to chemical alterations within food substances, malfunctions were observed within the lymphatic systems [absorbent vessels], causing a degeneration of the immune potentials of the body to protect against certain forms of neoplastics [abnormal growths of tissue];
7. Ingestion of microwaved foods caused a higher percentage of cancerous cells within the blood serum [cytomas - cell tumors such as sarcoma];
8. Microwave emissions caused alteration in the catabolic [metabolic breakdown] behavior of glucoside [hydrolyzed dextrose] and galactoside [oxidized alcohol] elements within frozen fruits when thawed in this manner;
9. Microwave emission caused alteration of the catabolic [metabolic breakdown] behavior of plant alkaloids [organic nitrogen based elements] when raw, cooked, or frozen vegetables were exposed for even extremely short durations;
10. Cancer causing free radicals [highly reactive incomplete molecules] were formed within certain trace mineral molecular formations in plant substances, and in particular, raw root-vegetables; and,
11. In a statistically high percentage of persons, microwaved foods caused stomach and intestinal cancerous growths, as well as a general degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues, with a gradual breakdown of the function of the digestive and excretive systems.
CATEGORY II
DECREASE IN FOOD VALUE
Microwave exposure caused significant decreases in the nutritive value of all foods researched. The following are the most important findings:
1. A decrease in the bioavailability [capability of the body to utilize the nutriment] of B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics in all foods;
2. A loss of 60-90% of the vital energy field content of all tested foods;
3. A reduction in the metabolic behavior and integration process capability of alkaloids [organic nitrogen based elements], glucosides and galactosides, and nitrilosides;
4. A destruction of the nutritive value of nucleoproteins in meats;
5. A marked acceleration of structural disintegration in all foods.
CATEGORY III
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE
Exposure to microwave emissions also had an unpredictably negative effect upon the general biological welfare of humans.
This was not discovered until the Russians experimented with highly sophisticated equipment and discovered that a human did not even need to ingest the material substance of the microwaved food substances: that even exposure to the energy-field itself was sufficient to cause such adverse side effects that the use of any such microwave apparatus was forbidden in 1976 by Soviet state law.
The following are the enumerated effects:
1. A breakdown of the human "life-energy field" in those who were exposed to microwave ovens while in operation, with side-effects to the human energy field of increasingly longer duration;
2. A degeneration of the cellular voltage parallels during the process of using the apparatus, especially in the blood and lymphatic areas;
3. A degeneration and destabilization of the external energy activated potentials of food utilization within the processes of human metabolism;
4. A degeneration and destabilization of internal cellular membrane potentials while transferring catabolic [metabolic breakdown] processes into the blood serum from the digestive process;
5. Degeneration and circuit breakdowns of electrical nerve impulses within the junction potentials of the cerebrum [the front portion of the brain where thought and higher functions reside];
6. A degeneration and breakdown of nerve electrical circuits and loss of energy field symmetry in the neuroplexuses [nerve centers] both in the front and the rear of the central and autonomic nervous systems;
7. Loss of balance and circuiting of the bioelectric strengths within the ascending reticular activating system [the system which controls the function of consciousness];
8. A long term cumulative loss of vital energies within humans, animals and plants that were located within a 500-meter radius of the operational equipment;
9. Long lasting residual effects of magnetic "deposits" were located throughout the nervous system and lymphatic system;
10. A destabilization and interruption in the production of hormones and maintenance of hormonal balance in males and females;
11. Markedly higher levels of brainwave disturbance in the alpha, theta, and delta wave signal patterns of persons exposed to microwave emission fields, and;
12. Because of this brainwave disturbance, negative psychological effects were noted, including loss of memory, loss of ability to concentrate, suppressed emotional threshold, deceleration of intellective processes, and interruptive sleep episodes in a statistically higher percentage of individuals subjected to continual range emissive field effects of microwave apparatus, either in cooking apparatus or in transmission stations.
Forensic Research Conclusions
>From the twenty-eight above enumerated indications, the use of microwave apparatus is definitely not advisable; and, with the decision of the Soviet government in 1976, present scientific opinion in many countries concerning the use of such apparatus is clearly in evidence.
Due to the problem of random magnetic residulation and binding within the biological systems of the body (Category III:9), which can ultimately effect the neurological systems, primarily the brain and neuroplexuses (nerve centers), long term depolarization of tissue neuroelectric circuits can result.
Because these effects can cause virtually irreversible damage to the neuroelectrical integrity of the various components of the nervous system (I. R. Luria, Novosibirsk 1975a), ingestion of microwaved foods is clearly contraindicated in all respects.
Their magnetic residual effect can render the pyschoneural receptor components of the brain more subject to influence psychologically by artificially induced microwave radio frequency fields from transmission stations and TV relay-networks.
The theoretical possibility of psycho telemetric influence (the capability of affecting human behavior by transmitted radio signals at controlled frequencies) has been suggested by Soviet neuropsychological investigations at Uralyera and Novosibirsk (Luria and Perov, 1974a, 1975c, 1976a), which can cause involuntary subliminal psychological energy field compliance to operative microwave apparatus.
FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT Prepared By: William P. Kopp A. R. E. C. Research Operations TO61-7R10/10-77F05 RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a
Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven
>From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:
1). Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].
2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
3). Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
4). The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.
5). Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.
6). The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.
7). Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.
8). The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.
9). Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.
10). Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
Have you tossed out your microwave oven yet?
After you throw out your microwave you can use a toaster oven as a replacement. It works well for most and is nearly as quick.
The use of artificial microwave transmissions for subliminal psychological control, a.k.a. "brainwashing", has also been proven. We're attempting to obtain copies of the 1970's Russian research documents and results written by Drs. Luria and Perov specifying their clinical experiments in this area.
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Cycle determines the unit of frequency, such as cycles per second, Hertz, Hz, or cycles/second. Frequency determines the number of occurrences within a given time period (usually 1 second); The number of occurrences of a recurring process per unit of time, i.e. the number of repetitions of cycles per second.
Ummm... isn't that the same thing? I may have almost failed the "waves" part of physics, but it sticks out pretty clearly in my mind that frequency is measured in Hz and that it means cycles/time.
quote:It's bad enough that many babies are not nursed, but now they are given fake milk (baby formula) made even more toxic via microwaving.
What a great unbiased "source"!
quote:In the case of Mrs. Levitt, the microwaving altered the blood and it killed her.
It's very obvious that this form of microwave radiation "heating" does something to the substances it heats.
Yeah, it is very obvious that this form of microwave radiation "heating" does something to the substances it heats. It cooks them! Had you left the blood in an oven (or other such "safe" heating device) until it got to the same temperature that the inside of the container o' blood got to, you'd get the same results.
Hacker "not that gullible" Barbie
Posts: 2351 | From: Germany | Registered: Aug 2000
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water bottle
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
quote:Of course, if microwave ovens were really harmful, our government would never allow them on the market, would they? Would they?
I stopped reading at this point. Quite possibly the phoniest rhetorical question I've ever seen. Trying to instill some sense of insecurity and paranoia into the reader is a really lame tactic and not something I would waste my time with
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posted
Couldn't read the whole thing, but i picked out enough points to be sufficiently annoyed.
quote: Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy, like light waves or radio waves, and occupy a part of the electromagnetic spectrum of power, or energy.
This immediately sticks out. Anyone with appreciable knowledge in physics knows that power and energy are not interchangable. The EM spectrum is not power. It can be likened to energy, and that's probably the most appropriate phenomenon it can be ascribed to in the context of this article.
In any case, this entire statement is either incorrect or redundant in every respect.
quote: Every microwave oven contains a magnetron, a tube in which electrons are affected by magnetic and electric fields in such a way as to produce micro wavelength radiation at about 2450 Mega Hertz (MHz) or 2.45 Giga Hertz (GHz). This microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food.
Again, redundancy. What the hell is the point of stating something in GHz and MHz? And for that matter, this seems pretty high. Off the top of my head, I imagine microwaves operate closer to 20MHz.
quote: All wave energy changes polarity from positive to negative with each cycle of the wave.
I'm not sure what this means, which makes me think it's either poorly worded or incorrect.
quote: By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.
I had thought that microwaves were too weak to actually get through the Earth's atmosphere, but I really wouldn't be surprised if I were incorrect.
What I do know is that the sun is not a DC source. Current flows through electrical conductors, not empty space.*
quote: Wavelength determines the type of radiation, i.e. radio, X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, etc.
Actually wavelength determines (you ready?) the length of the wave. The type of EM radiation can be determined just as easily by either wavelength or frequency.
quote: Cycle determines the unit of frequency, such as cycles per second, Hertz, Hz, or cycles/second. Frequency determines the number of occurrences within a given time period (usually 1 second); The number of occurrences of a recurring process per unit of time, i.e. the number of repetitions of cycles per second.
The unit of frequency is inverse time. It tells you how many times a wave peak passes by per second, for example.
I gave up here.
Alchemy
* Yes, there's insulator breakdown. Touche. But clearly, that would not happen in this situation.
-------------------- Thinking about New England / missing old Japan Posts: 2603 | From: Virginia | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:The Russians did research on thousands of workers who had been exposed to microwaves during the development of radar in the 1950's.
How were they exposed? From the looks of things, they were directly exposed, not exosed to food that was microwaved.
quote: This phase also often includes headache, dizziness, eye pain, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, stomach pain, nervous tension, inability to concentrate, hair loss, plus an increased incidence of appendicitis, cataracts, reproductive problems, and cancer.
Did this study have a control group? If not, what were they comparing this group of people to?
And let's not forget that if the subjects were handed a checklist with headache, dizziness, eye pain, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, stomach pain, nervous tension, inability to concentrate, and hair loss as options, many would check the categories that do not apply to them simply because of human nature. A lot of these are "symptoms" that we do not pay much attention to. But if John Doe was handed a checklist of these and told that he may be experiencing some of these because of some kind of exposure, I can bet that he'd be much more attentive to the symptoms and therefore would think that their incidence has increased, when in fact it stayed the same and he was just more aware of them.
That's why when pharmaceutical companies do research with regard to side effects, they use a control group. Has anyone ever seen the percentages of people in any control group who experienced "side effects"? Just grab a magazine and find an advertisement for some sort of prescription drug. Then look at the small print. Alternatively, get the insert from one of your prescriptions. See if they list incidence of side effects for the control group vs. the incidence for the experimental group. Sometimes the control group's side effects for irritability or headache are as high as 30%, especially if the drug tested is something like Zyprexa or Wellbutrin (or any potent drug prescribed for mental health).
The human mind is a powerful thing.
As for appendicitis, cataracts, reproductive problems, and cancer, we still don't know what they were comparing these industrial workers to. Perhaps these side effects were caused by somethign else that these people encountered in their workplace?
posted
Where did you get that piece of NFBSK, snopes? That is one of the most lame pieces of unbridled propaganda I have ever seen. Lamer than Albert Belle's hip. The junk science in there is so bad I won't even comment on it.
And I thought we were here to debunk legends of that type....
- Pseudo "now excuse me while I microwave an Uncle Ben's Mini-Bowl" Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
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Every microwave oven contains a magnetron, a tube in which electrons are affected by magnetic and electric fields in such a way as to produce micro wavelength radiation at about 2450 Mega Hertz (MHz) or 2.45 Giga Hertz (GHz). This microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food.
Again, redundancy. What the hell is the point of stating something in GHz and MHz? And for that matter, this seems pretty high. Off the top of my head, I imagine microwaves operate closer to 20MHz.
It is 2.4 gigahertz. Just like all those new cordless phones. Uh-oh, maybe that's why I get that warm feeling everytime I talk on the phone.
Posts: 165 | From: Somewhere in NY | Registered: Mar 2001
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The Vorlon Ambassador
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
Firstly, no one has ever found significant molecular changes caused by microwave cooking OTHER THAN THOSE THAT MIGHT BE CAUSED BY HEAT.
Depending on what is being cooked and the method used, normal cooking methods are much more dangerous. Grilling tends to result in burned proteins that clump together and become carcinogenic compounds. Long-term use of stir-frying has been associated with respiratory problems and cancer.
It's bad enough that the writer of this garbage exaggerates the dangers of microwaves, but he or she almost certainly doesn't have even a basic understanding of the risks of normal cooking!
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megaira
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
First it was "don't sit too close to the tv, you'll get cancer" Now it's the microwave. Tomorrow it'll be my mouse.
Who the HELL microwaves blood? That's about the damned dumbest thing I've ever heard of. What microwave did she use, the breakroom's? "hey, Nurse Wretched! Throw some popcorn in there for me while you're at it, eh?"
Maybe she should have used Panasonic's new Inverter* microwave oven for "true" low power cooking.
quote:Originally posted by The Vorlon Ambassador: Firstly, no one has ever found significant molecular changes caused by microwave cooking OTHER THAN THOSE THAT MIGHT BE CAUSED BY HEAT.
{snip}
It's bad enough that the writer of this garbage exaggerates the dangers of microwaves, but he or she almost certainly doesn't have even a basic understanding of the risks of normal cooking!
You're not joining the ranks of the raw foods people, are you dear. I really can't recommend that for say, chicken.
I am curious where snopes got this. I was bombarded with "throw out your mircowave" when I was pregnant. I saw something like this but the e-mails I received were much smaller. I guess people are tacking on their own testimonals or "research" as it makes the rounds.
-------------------- There is no interpersonal problem so big that it can't be solved with a suitably large amount of high explosives. ~ Bufungla Posts: 3562 | From: South Texas | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
It was probably written by the same guy who posts anti-Nutrisweet articles here every few months...
And, say: do you know how bad for your health *shoes* are? Shoes are the major contributing factor to corns, bunions, ingrown toenails, athlete's foot, toenail fungus, etc. Shoes are bad for your posture. Shoes cause your soles to be soft and spongy, instead of hard and callused; the use of shoes promotes a dependency on them, until one's feet become so tender that the use of shoes is completely necessary.
Silas (only half joking) Sparkhammer
-------------------- When on music's mighty pinion, souls of men to heaven rise, Then both vanish earth's dominion, man is native to the skies. Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Chava
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
quote:By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.
There's really no good place to start (or stop) on this business.
I have this lovely image of the engineers on the sun with their DC power plant pulsing the thing at 2.4 GHz to generate microwave radiation.
Microwaves, once they have been generated, whether by magnetrons or by the 21 cm hydrogen transistion, are indistinguishable from any other microwaves. Unless maybe you build a microwave laser and have coherent radiation...
If this guy applied his logic about the interaction of microwaves with molecules to sound waves, we would expect our bodies to be ripped limb from limb by the sound of someone talking across the room.
quote:Originally posted by Pseudo_Croat: Where did you get that piece of NFBSK, snopes? That is one of the most lame pieces of unbridled propaganda I have ever seen. Lamer than Albert Belle's hip. The junk science in there is so bad I won't even comment on it.
And I thought we were here to debunk legends of that type....
Which is exactly why snopes put it on the board, so we could debunk it. I seriously doubt snopes shares this person's views on microwaves.
Lizzy "I'll take my blood extra hot please" Bean
-------------------- Come on, come on, we were once upon a time in love If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. - Meister Eckhart My Blog Posts: 7725 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2000
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Tom-Tzu
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
I think it's pretty clear this guy's understanding of physics is incomplete, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here for just a moment.
Let's leave aside the fact that traditional cooking has all sorts of nasty chemical effects. Is it conceivable that the particular sort of heating produced in a microwave might have distinctly harmful effects of its own, when applied to food?
I think it is. Not LIKELY, but conceivable. Let's start with the oversimplification that microwaves only excite molecules (or parts of molecules) with a very narrow range of resonance. Could it not be that certain proteins which might be harmlessly denatured by general high temperatures could be selectively broken apart into genuinely dangerous compounds by heat that only affected certain points on the amino acid chain?
Sure it is. But for two problems:
(1) Microwave ovens actually transmit a range of microwave frequencies, heating a fairly wide variety of molecules, thus making the heating rather less selective. (2) Even if ovens used masers to heat food with coherent microwave radiation that tended to break molecules at just the worst possible place, they'd be pretty useless if they didn't also heat up the rest of the food. So as the kinetic energy of those few highly excited molecules bounces around and gets shared amongst ALL the molecules through conduction, again we end up with incoherent general heating which would tend to denature and break down those few unlikely dangerous by-products.
That whole bit about AC and DC and amplitude just makes me laugh. Amplitude with radiation is just a measure of how many photons there are; every photon of a given wavelength has exactly the same energy or "amplitude". Just one of the many ways in which quantum mechanics is weird...
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posted
The article was copyrighted in 2000 by The Christian Law Institute & Fellowship Assembly http://lawgiver.org This web site is defunct, however. It refers you to http://ecclesia.org whichis basically a forum. The original article is here http://ecclesia.org/lawgiver/microwave.asp but it's not much help--you have to register if you want the whole article.
Wayne writes newsletter articles for the Ecclesia folks--lots of conspriacy theories. There are a number of Lawrence Newells out there. I only found a couple of "sermons" by the microwave guy and can't identify him further. Try http://ecclesia.org/lawgiver/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=144
The microwave article cites Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at 3(2): 43
I cannot find the article--it doesn't help that the name of the publication is not mentioned. However, a search of databases of perr-reviewed articles fails to turn up anything written by those two authors. There are a couple of possibilities. One is Raum & Zelt aren't the authors, but it's really Raum & Zeit, which is a German publication that carries "articles in a wide realm of disciplines, including allopathic medicine, natural medicine, physics, chemistry, acupuncture, engineering, politics (related to the sciences)... As said before, we are a very open minded journal, not afraid to question, because only continuous questioning of everything and everybody will lead to absolute truth."
[Rummage, rummage, google google] Fianlly , a lead! Raum & Zeit is now Explore! Magazine. Swell, there are all sorts of Explore magazines, most are about the outdoors. Finally! "Explore Publications is devoted to putting in front of the discriminating public, quality reliable information from the cutting edge of Alternative and Holistic Medicine, Nutritional Therapies, Energy Medicine, Homeopathy and Physics." OK, now I found the index to Vol 3, No. 2. ON page 43 is INFLUENCE ON MAN by Bernard H, Blanc" This is apparently the same Barnard Balnc cited selswhere in the article. OOH! it was a conspiracy to cover up the evidence! Microwave–ovens cause cancer after all
Well, well, well, I just found a description of the study:
quote:In a 1992 study by Drs. Hans Hertel and Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry, a carefully controlled study was carried out on eight macrobiotic diet participants. They were housed in the same hotel environment for eight weeks. Some were fed microwaved food and others non-microwaved foods.
Blood samples were studied. Significant changes in the blood of those eating microwaved foods were noted:
There was a decrease in all hemoglobin values and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values.
Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants.
By studying luminescent bacteria, researchers concluded that there is a potential for microwave energy to be passed along to humans who eat microwaved foods.
This information was printed in Search for Health. A photocopy of the 21 page article (missing one page) came to me so long ago that it is impossible to trace the link. If anyone knows of this journal or newsletter, please let me know.
I give up. My brain hurts. In any case, I can't find any evidence that the anti-microwave stuff is based on anything peer-reviewed, just on a "study "of a bunch of macrobiotic folks holed up in a hotel.
Posts: 4255 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Tom-Tzu: Even if ovens used masers to heat food with coherent microwave radiation that tended to break molecules at just the worst possible place . . .
Heh. That reminds me of the idea a friend had: the acetylcholine maser. You shoot it at someone, and every nerve in their body sends its signal. One massive super-epileptic spasm... Or, if you used less power, just a big, nasty, painful super-twitch...
Silas (set maser on stun) Sparkhammer
-------------------- When on music's mighty pinion, souls of men to heaven rise, Then both vanish earth's dominion, man is native to the skies. Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Secret Unwin Man
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
quote:Originally posted by Silas Sparkhammer: Heh. That reminds me of the idea a friend had: the acetylcholine maser. You shoot it at someone, and every nerve in their body sends its signal. One massive super-epileptic spasm... Or, if you used less power, just a big, nasty, painful super-twitch...
Or, if you tightened the beam and aimed it only at a certain area of the body, you'd have a tasp.
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