Do microwave ovens cause cancer?

I'm a physicist and I just wrote a blog about cell phones and microwave radiation. I tend to agree with this post, but my numbers are a little different. Please check it out:
intensive-purposes.blogspot.com/2009/08/will-microwave-radiation-give-you_19.html
PS (to Michael, the previous poster), there are many wavelengths that will properly excite water molecules; however, microwave ovens are specifically detuned from the resonance wavelength (otherwise, the water in your food would quickly boil and the rest of your food would still be frozen).

More specifically, and more accurately, microwave photons are the right wavelength to excite most covalent bonds between Hydrogen and other smaller biologically relevant atoms such as carbon and oxygen. This is why they are able to heat up various organic materials as well as water, the heating is more efficient for more polar bonds (sugar has many polar bonds, which is why it responds so readily), but it is also able to heat relatively non-polar bonds, (fats have MANY Hydrogens in them, hence a high response to microwaves, even if they are mostly nonpolar).

Microwave ovens simply do not have the capacity to 'ionize' the human gene. The worst case scenario you can hope to achieve is severe burns from the food you cooked. Its sad to see so many idiots who believe that microwaved food causes cancer. The warning you see on the side of microwaves is aimed at those who have pacemakers, not for cancer risk.

Wow - a lot of comments here.

I appreciate the observations and disagreement with my editorial license. The primary point behind my note was really to distingush microwaves from the nasty effects of gamma rays and x-rays. I also didn\’t know the nasty impacts on the eyes - that was insightful.

By the way - as measured, my microwave at home appears to stay below the 2 mW, while an old 20 year old one I found looks to drift up towards 4mW - still much below your 100 mW WiFi network.

Finally, for those offended by my writing style, I appreciate your posting your opinion, but remember, it is a blog.

Energy in the 2.4GHz microwave range is generally only capable of imparting vibrational energy to molecules, not enough to rearrange chemical bonds.

However, it is enough to cause optical conformers (realigning molecules in 3D space), which can potentially turn milk proteins (for example) into undigestible and potentially carcinogenic variants.

Thus, although I routinely reheat my food in a microwave, I never use it to warm milk for an infant.

Regards, David.

I thought that fat and sugars heat faster in a Microwave than water. \”For if there is no water, then microwaves really don’t do much\”.

Microwaves are good for causing cataracts, there are lots of Telecoms engineers from the 70\’s who discovered the hard way

Joel

I do not agree with your notion that the biggest misconception is that microwaves cook. Actually, the biggest misconception dealing with microwave ovens is the notion that they heat things up because they excite the water molecule. The frequency of the microwaves emitted within your common microwave ovens is actually much lower than the natural frequency of a water molecule. The heating is actually a result of absorption.

Can anyone explain what happens when metal enters the microwave? I mean besides all the arcing. Or should I say what causes the arcing?

Microwaves can cause degredation of the eyes, much like cooking an egg.

That is why you should ALWAYS press stop BEFORE you open the door, so you dont get a 1000 watt blast as the caps discharge.

I don\’t understand \”The other part to note is that microwaves, even at 1000 watts, don’t actually cook anything\” So when i put my hotdog in boling water iam not cooking it? because all my gas burner is doing is heating water.

Hummm. We\’re mostly water. . . A microwave is a mechanical device (so it will fail at some point). . . poorly maintained by consumers. . . If one were to leak what would be its range? Most consumers are so impatient they literally stand peering inside the door.

I would be less concerned about cancer and more concerned of being cooked by excited H2O molecules.

Hummm. We\’re mostly water. . . A microwave is a mechanical device (so it will fail at some point). . . poorly maintained by consumers. . . If one were to leak what would be its range? Most consumers are so impatient they literally stand peering inside the door.

I would be less concerned about cancer and more concerned of being cooked by excited H2O molecules.

The main misconception that you state at the end of your article is that the oven is: \”…with the door closed is limited to 2 milliwatts of leakage, …\”. That \”limitation\” is only regulatory, for a new oven, in a particular test. Once the oven is in use for several years, with damage and contamination of the door seal area and a hole rusted through the shielding at the back of the cabinet there is no telling how much microwave radiation is leaking out of the oven cavity.

Even if you were correct about the microwaves doing no damage where there is no water, I still do not believe that you can name a body part that does not contain water.

And don\’t ever paint your radomes with a lead based paint. I spent 8 years in the navy working on airborne radar systems and the idiots on the flight line on occasion would use lead based paint to touch up the radome which covers the radar antenna. Couldn\’t estimate how many magnetrons I\’ve changed out.

I think Joel submitted his rough draft - no evidence of editing is apparent anyway. Honestly, I found that pretty annoying. Beyond that, however, he hasn\’t used any evidence to support his claim that only high frequency radiation is dangerous. He described how microwaves heat up food, but what about effects on living tissue other than heating? If no such effects have been documented, then he should say that.

When I was young - one of my teachers told our class that we shouldn\’t use microwave ovens because thay would make our food radioactive. I went home and told my parents not to buy one. We didn\’t get one till I was in high school.