Does microwave oven radiate much? How harmful is microwave oven radiation
4hw.com.cn: now microwave oven has become an indispensable household appliance for many families. It is convenient and fast to heat food or hot rice everyday. However, while microwave oven is convenient, some people worry about the radiation problem of microwave oven. Even some people on the Internet say that the radiation of microwave oven is very harmful, especially when it is heated, the radiation is dozens of times. Is this true? How harmful is microwave radiation? Let's have a look.
Is microwave oven harmful?
People have been saying that microwave heating food will produce carcinogens, the nutritional value of food will be lost, and microwave radiation will lead to brain damage. Is this really scientific? How can it be so exaggerated that it can lead to brain damage? Don't scare yourself first. Let's first understand what kind of wave microwave oven microwave is.
What kind of wave is microwave? How to heat it?
Microwave refers to the electromagnetic wave with the frequency of 0.3ghz-300ghz. For glass, plastic and porcelain, microwave almost passes through without being absorbed. And water and food will absorb microwave and make themselves hot. And for metal things, they reflect microwaves. So why can microwave oven heat food?
Electromagnetic spectrum (from radio wave to gamma ray)
Generally, food contains water and other polar molecules. Under the working condition of microwave oven, the electromagnetic wave will rotate 2 billion cycles per second. The water molecules will rotate at such a high speed, which will naturally 'heat all over', and the temperature will rise sharply in a short period of time. Instead of polar molecules, such as air or certain containers, they are not heated. So why do we feel that the container is also hot when we heat food? This is because the food is heated and the container is' hot 'by the hot food. Once the microwave stops, the rotating electric field disappears, and the water molecules are quiet. It should be noted that in this process, the water molecules themselves are not changed by microwave.
Is microwave heating food carcinogenic?
Because microwave is a kind of radiation, many people naturally think it can cause cancer. Some people even think of the words "please keep away from radiation" on the door when taking x-rays in the hospital. In fact, this is not a level at all. Microwave is a kind of electromagnetic wave, which is essentially the same thing as radio, telegraph, infrared and visible light. They differ only in frequency.
Microwave frequency is higher than radio wave, lower than infrared and visible light. Radio waves and visible light do not cause cancer. Naturally, it is not difficult to understand that microwaves between them do not cause cancer. In fact, the term "radiation" here means that microwave energy can be emitted, which is totally different from the radiation produced by X-rays and radioisotopes. Although X-ray is also an electromagnetic wave, its frequency is too much higher than microwave, so its energy is also high, and radioisotopes will emit particles in the process of decay, so they can make organisms produce canceration. Microwave energy absorbed by food will be converted into heat and will not cause food to be 'radioactive' or 'contaminated'.
Radiation is everywhere in life
In fact, in daily life, mobile phones, televisions, computers and other electronic products will produce radio waves. If the harm of microwave oven is compared horizontally, it is the same with computer radiation and mobile phone radiation. And the use frequency of microwave oven is far lower than that of mobile phone and computer. In fact, its harm is much smaller than that of using mobile phone and computer all the year round.
Radiation is everywhere in our life, so do we need to worry about radiation? First of all, we need to know that radiation is divided into ionizing radiation and non ionizing radiation. The energy derived from radiation depends on the frequency, the higher the frequency, the greater the energy. The energy of ionizing radiation can ionize atoms and molecules, while the energy of low-energy non ionizing radiation will not. Data from the centre for health protection of the Hong Kong Department of health show that the energy of non ionizing radiation is low enough to change the chemical properties of substances. However, too strong ionizing radiation may cause teratogenesis, carcinogenesis, mutation and great harm. Microwave oven belongs to non ionizing radiation, so there is no need to make a fuss about the exaggerated problems such as brain damage caused by using microwave oven.
Life is full of radiation
Three elements of electromagnetic radiation: 1. Intensity of radiation source; 2. Time of radiation; 3. Distance from radiation source.
Most importantly, electromagnetic radiation also has a cumulative effect. Once or twice, we can't see any problems, but it will gradually cause harm to human body when it accumulates to a certain extent. We usually use microwave ovens. We will not take them with us like mobile phones. We will never leave them for a day. It will certainly not be used for a long time as frequently as computers. Most people spend more than six hours in front of computers every day. For the use of microwave ovens, it has been used twice a day for many times. Usually when we use the microwave oven, we don't stick to it. Most people put food in the microwave oven and do other things. When the food is hot, come and get it. So the radiation harm to microwave oven is very little. Compared with those mobile phones and games, the damage of microwave radiation is much smaller.