On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:10:11 -0500, "
wrote:



AZGuy wrote:

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 12:28:05 -0500, "
wrote:


I see no reason to worry about it. We often run two at the same time.
I'm sure many lower quality/price restaurants often run several at the
same time. IIRC, unless you are standing VERY close to the microwave
AND it has a defective door you have nothing to worry about as far as
stray radiation. And it's not like it's stray x-rays, it's just radio
waves.


http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_...ovens.html#top

I'd like to know just what about my "argument" you think sucks. I
very clearly said "unless you are standing VERY close to the microwave

The supporting factoids that you gave for your conclusion we
(A) That you do it a lot, and that (B) it's only radio waves.

The first factoid is irrelevent, all it proves is that it hasn't
killed you yet. and the second is almost, but not completely, false.
It's not "just radio waves", it's microwaves. And if you actually
managed to expose yourself to them, they could and would kill you.


I guess you don't know this well kept secret but "microwaves" ARE
radio waves. They are just at a much higher frequency then what your
radio and TV set use. For the same reason you don't want to sit
inside a microwave oven you don't want to stand in front of a radar
antenna. Both use "microwave" frequencies and both are absorbed by
whatever hunk of meat is in their path. The absorbed energy
dissipates in the meat and turns to heat. It was this sort of
accident around radar that gave someone the idea of making a microwave
oven.


And mere exposure to microwaves won't kill you. If you travel by plane
or are ever near an airport (or a police radar gun for that matter)
you get exposed to microwaves. It is only if you get VERY close to
the transmitting antenna that you have a problem. The more powerful
the transmitter, the farther away "close" is.

I agree that operating two of them is safe, but the reason for that
is that the microwaves stay inside the oven, not that microwaves
aren't dangerous.

--Goedjn

--
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . .
Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of
the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order
to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House
of Representatives, August 17, 1789