opening the microwave door when its running blasts everyone nearby with radiation

[alittlethyme]

OK so I am a tin foil hat person, but at work I sit near a microwave and people always spend ages typing in a number only to just open the door before its finished.

Aibu to think this door opening is blasting everyone with unnecessary radiation?

Why shouldn't you look inside, is it like the Wizard of Oz and his curtain?

Personally I think microwaves should be banned from the workplace. Who wants to smell someone else's curry/soup/left overs all afternoon???

Potato peelers, they are dangerous. It took a chunk of skin out of my forefinger. Evil thing.

Blimey you lot are odd.

Microwave radiation can indeed be dangerous. The heating effect would do the same thing to a human as it does to a frozen chicken leg. No carcinogenic effects proven, but always hard to entirely disprove.

This is why microwave ovens are (these days) carefully designed to prevent leakage. Damaged ovens are potentially dangerous.

Mocking the OP for asking about the danger is like mocking someone for asking about electric sockets. In good condition and used properly = very low risk. Damaged = potentially fatal.

Or perhaps you'd like to stick a screwdriver in a socket while asking the OP if she thinks electricity is little pixies running in the wires?

Blasting?! That's a powerful microwave you've got there - it even works with the door open. Our is so pitiful you can microwave something for 10 minutes in it and you'd be grateful if it came out tepid!

I like being odd. My DP finds it very sexy.

Canadian govt site on microwave oven safety.

(Just the first I could find.)

if she thinks electricity is little pixies running in the wires? hmm

you mean..it isn't?

Don't annoy them pixies!

I actually think it's really unreasonable to have a microwave actually in the office close to people's desks. There must be all sorts of hygiene and safety issues, as well as being just a bit yuk and anti-social for the people sitting close.

I don't think it makes a difference when people open the door though, just that it should be somewhere else.

But... but... but... when the door is open there can be no microwaves escaping!

And, with the best will in the world, I couldn't fold myself into one and get the door closed!

So no stray microwave would be able to treat me like a frozen chicken leg!

No tin hat required!

Or at least, no more of a tin hat required than when around well brushed hair, nylon nighty and bedsheets, electric cable, mobile phone, radio, television, wifi router, sunshine, moonshine or the sunniest of smiles

I do, however, own a dreamcatcher.

kentishgirl

You shouldn't look inside one because you don't know if the microwave in question has a leak - the eyeballs are extremely vulnerable.

From memory of an explanation my Dad gave me many moons ago, microwave energy works by agitating water molecules, which creates heat. I think in theory if you put something totally dry in an atmosphere of zero water, it would come out the same temperature at which you put it in as it there is no water to agitate.

Your eyeballs are water-based. The idea of microwave energy penetrating them would be highly undesirable.

My dad worked on the domestic development of microwaves and conducted a lot of research into them. Believe me, he wasn't a scare monger at all and believed heavily in nuclear power generation, but he would never ever allow us to peer into the microwave when it was operating.

Oh and just to throw the cat among the pigeons further, he worked on telecoms too and told me never to keep my phone in my pocket!

when the door is open there can be no microwaves escaping

On a properly functioning, undamaged microwave oven.

(Although is likely to be some leakage anyway, as it's not a perfect Faraday cage. But regulations require this leakage to be low.)

Gosh I just asked a question, no need for some of the unpleasant reposnses on here.

Anyway the microwave in question is very old, it seems to keep running for a split second after being opened. This is what concerns me.

Agree with FamilyAdventure. If it were me, I would be complaining about all the food smells. Yuk!

Ah, in that case get rid.

Or insist work have it professionally serviced (which will come to the same thing as it's probably cheaper to buy new).

Well shit. My microwave is at eye level.
I'm scared to look at it.
But I want to.

Argh.

Surely there'd be more leakage (if any) when the door is closed and it's actually running. It can't run when the door is open, so I'd think that would be the safest time to be near it!

I also heard that microwaves agitate water molecules - it was in some propaganda thing I saw/read once. Tried to imply that affecting molecules is a Bad. Thing. But it made me think, if you boil a pan of water on your stove, surely that's agitating water molecules just as much??m

Dunno, Drop, are you planning to put your eyeballs in a pan of water on your stove?

It should have an annual PAT test

Stick a spoon in it set it to 10 mins and go to the loo.

Hey presto new microwave

I would like to add that the explanation my Dad gave me was when I was about 8 - I'm sure he dumbed it down quite a lot! Either way, microwave energy is potential incredibly dangerous. As anyone who has seen the film The Last House on the Left will know!

As it is in a workplace, it should have a PAT test which will check it for safety.

Lots of everyday things are highly radioactive. Bananas and sea salt are a couple of things.

No more than I plan to give them a quick blast in a microwave!

OP as you do seem to genuinely think the microwave at work is malfunctioning and dangerous, you should report it to the Health and Safety person. At least then you would get some peace of mind.