In article , mm wrote:
On 21 Sep 2008 08:37:44 -0400, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

"Don Klipstein" wrote in message
...
In article , mm wrote:

I just got out of the hospital with a broken arm and abdominal
surgery. (you don't want to know the gory details) It's very hard to
do anything. I live alone.

I am getting into a bit of a mood to pull out my Troll-O-Meter unit
to see if it gets a reading for someone who can load food into a microwave
oven and operate it and drag its cover onto it but is questioning need of
a screw or more than one screw.

Sorry, but mm has been a regular here for a couple of years and he did
mention in the past that he lives alone. I have no reason to doubt he has a
problem. Unfortunately, IIRC, he lives a couple of hundred miles from me or
I'd go fix his microwave cover or take him a cheap unit to use.

Thanks, Edwin. I appreciate the defense and the thought that you'd do
that for me.

I do apologize. Based on how this thread has worked out and on presence
of someone backing you up, I am now finding the posted microwave oven
predicament to be legitimate.

For such emergency use, putting the cover on is good enough.
Preferably, get at least one screw in - that affects localized currents in
the cover, probably favorably (or else they would insulate the cover from
what it attaches to and fasten it by means other than metal screws).

I expect mere milliwatts per square centimeter a few feet away if
leakage is high. Output of the magnetron is around a kilowatt. If all of
it escapes the oven and is radiated "isotropically" (uniformly over a
spherical pattern), a kilowatt amounts to about 79-80 miliwatts per square
centimeter at 1 meter away (39.37 inches).

You only need 98.75% or so effectiveness of shielding to get that down
to the US standard (for workplace safety) of 1 milliwatt per square
centimeter.

Keep in mind that there is little evidence that microwaves do anything
to living humans other than heating, and a lot of evidence that microwaves
cause known damage to living humans only by heating and that the various
alarmist suspected ill effects correspond well to temperature or rate of
change of temperature unless they correlate well only to nothing "that
computes".

Russia has a standard of 1 microwatt per square centimeter, but I
consider that alarmist.

Also - direct midday sunlight is typically 75-105 milliwatts per square
centimeter, often close to 100.

There is one main body part to worry about from microwaves - interior of
the eyeball, especially the lens. Removal of excessive heat by blood flow
is notably absent there. If you are paranoid about that, put your hands
over your eyes while the microwave is running. 3/4 of an inch of flesh
will absorb a very good majority of microwaves of that particular
frequency.
Don't worry about a couple seconds of exposure to get the oven started -
even at 100 mw per square centimeter, the lens of the eye will only warm
up by 1 degree C over a few seconds. Even 1 watt per square centimeter of
microwaves will not cook your eyes within a second or two.

If the cover is on and even fitted a little poorly and no screws are in,
I expect about 90% shielding. One screw I estimate to have improvement to
98% even if the cover is about 1/4 inch out-of-place in spots. And I
consider these estimates moderately conservative!

Put your hands over your eyes and back away as best as you can, and that
is what I would do - and if I get in the same predicament, I would do this
and run such an ill-fated microwave oven!

As for microwave irradiation of testicles - I give low chance of even
warming them to so much as normal body interior temperature at 2 feet
with only 90% shielding, at which sperm production is impaired and only
temporarily. Testosterone production is affected even less (so
adventurous use of a semi-repaired microwave oven has low chance of
preventing male pattern baldness, preventing premature ejaculation,
preventing hard-ons at embarrassing moments, and inhibiting effects of
strength-building exercise).

- Don Klipstein )