The actual wave called a Microwave if passed through your body at high enough levels will kill you. That is the case for many waves. The real question is what are high enough levels.
Conventional western “wisdom” is that the radiation produced my kitchen microwave units is not high enough to cause damage…..
Just like it was once fine to be exposed to low levels of pesticide? Or just like it was fine to smoke?
I have no scientific study to contest the popular belief that microwaves are safe but my common sense does. And my common sense has kept me alive and healthy for many years.
We are building a green show house so the big debate was whether microwaves should be in the house.
Under consideration was the energy savings of a microwave. Heating a bowl of soup on the microwave is a very effective use of energy.
But rarely discussed is the side effects of heating th molecules of that soup with absurdly violent vibrations, which is essentially what microwaves do. This isn’t like normal heat from a flame. Microwave literally rattle the molecules.
A fellow green builder, Dan Hemenway from Barking Frogs Permaculture Center, said it very well. In fact his comments gave me sufficient impetus to decide not to put microwaves into the show house
Dan wrote:
• Microwaves are the energy version of genetic engineering, insofar as cooking is concerned.
They engender unknown changes in the food. Food originates from water and carbon dioxide
being maneuvered into an unstable arrangement by plants. The instability is caused by
trapping more energy than is normal ‘ground state’ for the materials under ambient
conditions.
Food is more complex, of course, than carbohydrates, but that is were it all
begins. The polarity of microwaves matches in wavelength the distance involved in
the polarity of water molecules. It is like we grab Mickey Mouse by the ears and shake
the living hell out of him as the radiation polarity oscillates. This heats water in the food,
cooking it.
It also changes water molecules that are bound in the food compounds, creating
novel chemicals of unknown consequence. Trees growing near microwave relay stations
start dying, but restore growth when protected by a Faraday cage. Microwaves kill.
If you want to assume that a mass produced product flawlessly and eternally protects you from
this tearing up of organic molecules, well and good. I’m all for free choice. I think it is
unethical to recommend this risk to others, however.
We know the changes introduced by ordinary cooking, and we know the sorts of ordinary
cooking that produce changes in food that are bad for us. Mainly they involve excessive
temperatures which produce dangerous compounds in lipids and proteins, and dangerous
ring compounds from organic molecules in general.
The far more subtle, and likely vastly more varied, changes in food by tearing at the
innards of molecules are of unknown risk. I’m not willingly going anywhere near
a microwave oven in operation. Where practical, I leave the building.
If we know it is bad to be exposed to microwave radiation, then why would the same
damage to organic chemicals in our food be assumed safe?
I know people who live on uncooked food. That is real energy savings. I’m corrupted in
my tastes, and don’t want to change. So I’ll use heat. Keep your microwaves.
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