Health Effects of Microwave Radiation - Microwave Ovens
by Lita Lee, Ph. D.
Because the body is electrochemical in nature, any force which disrupts or
changes human electrochemical phenomena will affect the physiology of the body.
This is 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.
In my book and in two issues of Earthletter (March and September 1991), I have
stated that ALL microwave ovens leak electro-magnetic radiation harms food and
converts substances in it to dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products.
Further research summarized in this article reveals that microwave ovens are far
more harmful than I previously imagined.
Microwave ovens were originally developed by the Nazis for use in their mobile
support operations.
After the war, the Allies discovered medical research done by the Germans on
microwave ovens.
These documents and the microwave ovens were transferred to the United States
War Department and classified for reference and scientific investigation. the
Soviet Union also retrieved some microwave ovens and has done the most thorough
research on their biological effects. As a result, their use us outlawed. The
Soviets have issued an international warning on the health hazards (both
biological and environmental) of microwave ovens and similar frequency
electronic devices.
Other Eastern European scientists reported the harmful effects of microwave
radiation and have set strict environmental limits. For reasons not related to
health (smile!), the United States has not accepted European reports of harmful
effects, even though the EPA estimates that radio frequency and microwave
radiation sources are increasing at 15% per year.
First let's discuss microwave ovens, because they have effects on the food they
heat/cook and on the people who ingest it. Then we can broaden this to include
other emitters of magnetic radiation (e.g., any device with an electric current
running through it.)
Microwave ovens emit two types of radiation: the microwaves or high frequency
radio waves, and the 60 hz magnetic fields common to other home appliances. This
comes from the transformers in the back.
The oven door is the most dangerous place for microwave leakage, but magnetic
field can occur all around the oven. this is not good news for children, who
love to watch the foods bubbling inside.
In addition to oven leakage, microwaving causes adverse effects in food. They
include: formation of cancer-causing substances, leakage of toxic chemicals from
the packaging into the foods, and destruction of nutrients.
What happens to people who ingest microwaved foods or who are exposed to
external sources of microwave radiation?
CARCINOGENIC SUBSTANCES IN MICROWAVED FOOD
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, e.g.,
cooking or thawing or heating to insure sanitary ingestion. Here's a summary of
some of the results:
a.. Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused
formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well known carcinogen.
b.. Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted certain of their amino acids
into carcinogens.
c.. Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside- and galactoside- containing
fractions into carcinogenic substances.
d.. Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their
plant alkaloids into carcinogens.
e.. Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root
vegetables.
To this list, I will add results reported in the December 9, 1989, Lancet which
were discussed in the March, 1991, Earthletter. 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 (nervous system) and nephrotoxic
(kidneys). It's bad enough that many babies are not nursed, Now they are given
faked milk (baby formula) made even more toxic via microwaving.
DECREASE IN NUTRITIVE VALUE OF MICROWAVED FOODS
Russian researchers 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:
a.. Deceased bioavailability of vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E,
essential minerals and lipotropics factors in all food tested.
b.. Various kinds of damaged to many plant substances, such as alkaloids,
glucosides, galactosides and nitrilosides.
c.. The degradation of mucleoproteins in meats.
LEAKAGE OF CHEMICALS FROM THE PACKAGE INTO THE FOOD
The January/February, 1990, Nutrition Action Newsletter reported on the leakage
of numerous toxic chemicals from the "heat-susceptor" packaging of common
microwavable foods, including pizzas, french fries, popcorn, and anything
requiring a "crispy" crust or a crunchy texture.
Microwave ovens cannot make foods brown and crisp or crunchy. No problem! Heat
susceptors are visible thin, gray strips or disks of metallized plastic that
absorb microwave energy and turn the surface of the package into a very hot
little frying pan which does the trick!
There are many chemicals that can be used in heat-susceptor packages, all
approved of by the FDA (whew, I was worried!). What was not recognized, however,
was that susceptors can reach temperatures of 300 to 500 degrees F. in the
microwave. When they do, the chemicals in the plastic migrate from the
susceptors into your food. the FDA tested susceptors packages in 1988. Every
package tested released chemicals into the food. Among these were PET
(polyethylene terpthalate, a petroleum derived product), and other known or
suspected carcinogens, such as benzene, toluene and xylene.
Industry says, no sweat. No health hazard. Nutrition Action Newsletter reports,
"The FDA has asked packaging manufactures to identify the chemicals and to
submit data on how much they migrate and the health hazards they pose." what a
comfort!
PATHOGENIC CHANGES OBSERVED IN CONSUMERS OF MICROWAVED FOOD
Changes are observed in the blood chemistries and the rates of certain diseases
among consumers of microwaved foods. the following is a sample of these changes.
a.. Lymphatic disorders were observed, leading to decreased ability to prevent
certain types of cancers.
b.. An increased rate of cancer cell formation was observed in the blood c..
Increased rates of stomach and intestinal cancers were observed.
d.. Higher rates of digestive disorders and a grandual breakdown of the systems
of elimination were observed.
OTHER SOURCES OF MICROWAVE RADIATION - MICROWAVE SICKNESS The Russians did
research on thousand 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 for workers and one
microwatt for lay people.
In Robert O. Becker's book, mentioned above, he described research of the
Russians on the health effects of microwave radiation which they called
microwave sickness. He said (page 314) "its 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, eyepain, 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 (blockage of coronary arteries and
heart attach)."
GENERAL EFFECTS OF MAGNETIC (60 Hz) FIELDS FROM ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES
These effects have been widely studied by the Russians and other European
scientists and over 300 U.S. scientists.
In addition to microwave ovens, other commonly used devices may be dangerous
because people use them (within field range) or work near them. The most common
of these are electric stoves, TV's, VDT's (the display monitors of computers),
cellular telephones, portable radio telephones, clock radios (usually placed
close to the head of the bed), electric hair dryers, radar gun speed detectors,
and ham radios. The list also includes residential magnetic fields from power
transmission lines, distributions in the home, The effect has to do with the
source of magnetic radiation as well as the part of the body it strikes. For
example, the cellular telephone and the portable radio phones both emit high
magnetic fields. When in use, they are held next to the head where the radiation
strikes the pineal gland, inhibiting its production of melatonine. Melatonine is
a hormone that inhibits breast cancer, among other functions.
SOME RECENT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Since 1986, I lived in a California house which had been wired incorrectly
resulting in a low level magnetic field almost though out the house.
In August, 1992, my family moved to a country home near Eugene, Oregon. I
excitedly ran around our new home, the first thing I noticed was that I was
sleeping quite well for the first time in six years!
I believe that my sleeplessness was not all due to everyday stress, but also to
electromagnetic pollution in my California home! If you are an insomniac, do not
assume it is solely because of your financial or personal problems! It may be
"electronic smog," and apt term.
One day, when the weather turned colder, I noticed that my feet felt warm in the
kitchen, even though I was barefoot. "The floor!" I thought. "It's electrically
heated, and the heat was not on when I first measured it during the hot season!"
The entire kitchen and recreation room read high levels of magnetic radiation on
my meter (over 10 milligauses).
The dangerous thing about electrically heated floors is that they are a planar
source of radiation which does not fall off rapidly. My meter read high magnetic
field radiation from my feet to my eyeballs! Common appliances are point sources
of radiation, which fall off rapidly, dropping to zero at around three feet. It
was an easy solution to turn off the fuses that controlled the heating of the
electric floors. better cold feet than magnetic sickness!
Beware! test the magnetic field effects in your home when the power is on and at
peak times of power output! Otherwise, you may not detect high magnetic field
conditions.
MICROWAVED
By Kashish Gupta
Ecologist
http://mail.psychedelic-library.org/show.cfm?postid=4851&row=6
MICROWAVE OVENS * Eighty per cent of the UK'S Population use them and yet two
comprehensive studies have shown that they damage our health. Isn't it time more
research was done into the effects they have on us and the food we put into
them?
THE RUSSIANS
From 1957 up until very recently Russian research into microwaves was mainly
carried out at the Institute of Radio Technology at Klinsk in Byelorussia.
According to US researcher William Kopp, Russian forensic teams observed the
following key effects:
1. People who ingested microwaved foods showed a statistically higher incidence
of stomach and intestinal cancers, plus a general degeneration of peripheral
cellular tissues and a gradual breakdown of the function of the digestive and
excretory systems.
2. Due to chemical alterations within food substances, malfunctions occurred
within the lymphatic system, causing a degeneration in the immune system's
ability to protect the body against neoplastic (cancerous) growth.
3. Microwave exposure caused significant decreases in the nutritional value of
all foods studied, most significantly in the bio- availability of Bcomplex
vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics (substances
that prevent abnormal accumulation of fat).
4. Heating prepared meats in a microwave sufficiently for human consumption
creates the cancer-causing agent d-nitrosodiethanolamine.
5. Cancer-causing free radicals were formed within certain trace-mineral,
molecular formations in plant substances -- particularly in raw root vegetables.
6. Ingestion of microwaved foods caused a higher percentage of cancerous cells
within the blood serum.
7. Microwaving foods alters their elemental food substances, leading to
disorders in the digestive system.
The use of microwave ovens was banned in Russia in 1976.
Dr Hans Ulrich Hertel
Food scientist Dr Hans Ulrich Hertel fought for 10 years to have his findings
concerning the dangers of microwave ovens acknowledged. His statement that
inspired the microwave manufacturers to use the Swiss courts to silence him was:
'Food cooked or defrosted in a microwave oven causes changes in the blood
indicative of a developing pathological process as is also found in a
carcinoma.' Put simply, microwaved food causes cancer.
In 1989 Hertel teamed up with professor Bernard Blanc of the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology. They proposed to the University of Lausanne a research
programme to look into the effects of microwaved food on humans. Their
application for funding was turned down on the grounds that there was no need
for research in this area. Undeterred, the two scientists decided to fund
a smaller research programme themselves.
They selected eight individuals and fed them on a range of raw, conventionally
cooked and microwaved foods. Blood samples were taken from each volunteer before
and after eating. Serious irregularities were found both in the structure of the
food microwaved and in the blood of those eating the microwaved samples.
The microwave industry reacted to the research by taking Hertel to court. He was
convicted under Swiss unfair competition laws. And such was the pressure put on
Blanc (he told Hertel that he feared for the safety of his family) that he
publicly dissociated himself from the research.
[Another source
<http://blpublications.com/html/body_microwaveovens_.html>writes: "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 'nterfering 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."
Effects of Microwave Heating on the Loss of Vitamin B(12) in
Foods.
Watanabe F, Abe K, Fujita T, Goto M, Hiemori M, Nakano Y.
Department of Food and Nutrition, Kochi Women's University, Kochi 780,
Japan, and Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Osaka Prefecture
University, Sakai 593, Japan.
To clarify the effects of microwave heating on the loss of vitamin B(12) in
foods, raw beef, pork, and milk were treated by microwave heating and then their
vitamin B(12) contents were determined according to a chemiluminescent vitamin
B(12) assay with hog intrinsic factor. Appreciable loss ( approximately 30-40%)
of vitamin B(12) occurred in the foods during microwave heating due to the
degradation of vitamin B(12) molecule by microwave heating. When hydroxo vitamin
B(12), which predominates in foods, was treated by microwave heating and then
analyzed by silica gel 60 thin layer chromatography, two vitamin B(12)
degradation products were found.
One of the compounds with a R(f)() of 0.16 was purified and partially
characterized. The vitamin B(12) degradation product did not show any biological
activity in the growth of a vitamin B(12) requiring microorganism, Euglena
gracilis Z, and was not bound to hog intrinsic factor, a mammalian vitamin B(12)
binding protein. Intravenous administration of the compound (1 microg/day) for 7
days to rats showed that the compound neither has toxicity nor acts as a vitamin
B(12) antagonist in mammals. These results indicate that the conversion of
vitamin B(12) to the inactive vitamin B(12)degradation products occurs in foods
during microwave heating.
PMID: 10554220 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Below is a science fair project that my granddaughter did for
2006. In it she took filtered water and divided it into two parts. The first
part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated
to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling she used the water to water two
identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between
the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking
that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwave. As it
turned out, even she was amazed at the difference.
Marshall Dudley
Follow-up. We have seen a number of comments on this, such as
what was the water in the microwave boiled in. The thinking is that maybe some
leaching took place if it was in plastic. It was boiled in a plastic cup, so
this could be a possibility. Also it was not a double blind experiment, so she
knew which was which when watering them. On top of that she was wanting the
microwaved ones to do poorly, and although most scientists would dismiss the
idea, it is possible that her thoughts toward each plant had an effect as well.
Bottom line is, the results are interesting, and duplicate the results that
others have reported (try Googling '"microwaved water" plants') more experiments
need to be done with better controls and as a double blind study. But this was a
simple 6th grade science fair project, and was never intended to be anything
more than that.
The plants were genetically identical, they were produced from graphs from
the same parent plant, so that variable can be eliminated.
Dangers of microwave cooking
Here are some articles with references explaining 'why" -- you said " when you
go down to Mexico to their cancer treatment center for the Hoxsey the first
thing they tell you is to throw away your microwave!!! I wonder why..... "
Radiation Ovens: The Proven Dangers of Microwaves In simpler terms, a microwave
oven decays and changes the molecular structure of the food by the process of
radiation. 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. Significant changes were
discovered in the blood samples from the intervals following the foods cooked in
the microwave oven.
Extensive scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct
microwave radiation on living systems. Impaired cells become easy prey for
viruses, fungi and other microorganisms. Every microwave oven leaks
electro-magnetic radiation, harms food, and converts substances cooked in it to
dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products.
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]."
http://www.laleva.cc/environment/microwave.html
MICROWAVE COOKING is Killing You! Blanc and Hertel found that eating microwaved
food: - Increases cholesterol; Increases white blood cell numbers; Decreases red
blood cell numbers;Causes production of radiolytic compounds (compounds unknown
in nature) This then causes deterioration in your blood and immune system. Due
to chemical alterations within food substances, malfunctions occurred in the
lymphatic system, causing degeneration of the immune systems capacity to protect
itself against cancerous growth. Those ingesting micro-waved foods showed a
statistically higher incidence of stomach and intestinal cancers, plus a general
degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues with a gradual breakdown of
digestive and excretory system function. MICROWAVED PLASTIC WRAP HAS 10,000,000
TIMES FDA LIMITS OF CARCINOGENS! Microwave cooking is one of the most important
causes of ill health. http://www.relfe.com/microwave.html
Microwave Ovens: The Proven Dangers 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? http://www.detoxifynow.com/microwave_dangers.html
Microwaving — Dangers to Your Food and You? Microwave ovens are in 90% of
American homes. People are continuing to microwave their food without knowing
the effects or dangers of doing so. All foods that were processed through the
microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Microwave ovens
are far more harmful than previously imagined. The truth will surprise you. Many
studies and results; how the microwave effects you; how it effect food; more.
http://www.jrussellshealth.com/microwaves.html
Chapter 3 - on the dangers of microwaving food and water
A microwave oven may be fast and convenient...but is it really safe? From The
Handbook of Rife Frequency Healing by.Ninah Sylver, Phd. http://www.nenahsylver.com/default.asp?contentID=716&toplevel=618
The Alarming Effects of Microwave Apparatus on Food and Humans The Russians -
who have done the most diligent research into the biological effects of
microwave ovens - have outlawed their use and issued an international warning
about the biological and environmental damage that can result from the use of
this and similar-frequency electronic apparatus.The observations made by the
German and Russian microwave researchers will be presented here in three
categories: cancer-causing effects, destruction of nutritive value and
biological effects of direct exposure of humans to microwave emissions. http://www.mindfully.org/Food/Irradiate-Microwave-Effects-FoodMay96.htm
Back to page
