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?

PAT testing confirms the electrical safety of a device I think - it doesn't check for microwave leaks. You can buy microwave leak detectors, but again my dad (I know, I keep banging on about him) said the domestic testers were naff anyway and not to trust them.

And as the trusty fan heater by my desk caught light a few weeks after it's PAT test, I no longer take them as gospel anyway.

There is NO requirement in law for PAT testing the law. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. However, the Regulations do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (ie they don't make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement, nor do they make it a legal requirement to undertake this annually).

In any case, PAT testing will only check the electrics, doesn't check if the microwave is properly sealed.

I'm confident that after 10 mins with a spoon the little plate on the ceiling of it will fry and cause much sparking.

Making it fail a PAT test.
I would also guess it would be replaced with a new safer one.

Or you could rip the bloody door off.

Sitting right next to photocopiers I thought wasn't good for you but microwaves don't work like that.

Get some beaten egg white and surreptitiously paint it around the door of the microwave and anywhere you think there might be a problem... run it for a couple of minutes (boil a cup of water or two) and see if any of the egg white turns white -if it does, then chances are it will have been cooked by the microwaves leaking or the microwave getting overly hot. In either case, it's bad so get your work to change it...

I used to think that looking at the photocopier light moving underneath the glass, when the top was in the open position, would blind a person. Someone told me that and I held onto this belief for years. I am so trusting and stupid

I think people ?ere trying to cheer you up with humour .... You asked if the door open on the microwave would harm you.

Would you rather tales of doom gloom and death by microwave?

Bit drip feedy to call everyone mean because we should have known it's a special microwave that still works when the door is open.

If you think the microwAve is dangerous tell the relevant person at work. This thread is no use at all. Had you intended to put a sign above it saying 76% of Mnetters think this microwave will radiate your bits?

Charlie, there's some truth in that too. No once, but done repeatedly over a period of time, looking at he photocopier light wouldn't do you any good.

I do love a good microwave thread. Can anyone remember the one with the title something like 'Man jailed for microwaving rabbit - is three years long enough?'

Oh the fun of that when some posters dared to find humour in the title!

actually that maybe wasn't here, possibly babyworld dddl a long time ago!

I see crazy people

I've just reponded on another thread with the funniest quip in the world ever. I was asked if I'd been waiting a long time for a seagull thread just to tell a crap joke? I replied 'yes for years and years. It's been an albatross'. I ROTFLed...I'm wasted round here.

FINALLY we have the important bit - the microwave seems faulty. This is information we weren't given so you can't blame people for the reaction to apparent scientific cluelessness.

if you think the microwave is faulty, there will be someone in the office with responsibility for this. Tell them.

although in my experience these are the kind of people who replace kettles with items that splatter water hot enough to scald but not hot enough to make decent tea. Worth a try though.

If you're equally worried about being electrocuted when someone opens the oven then YANBU

"the microwave in question is very old, it seems to keep running for a split second after being opened. This is what concerns me."
By 'keep running' do you mean it's making a noise? If it's an old design it probably has a 'stirrer' and the noise is likely to be the motor that moves that rather than anything to do with the microwaves.

In reference to a previous comment, bananas and iodised salt are radioactive, but only very very slightly. We get much more exposure to ionising radiation from radon from the ground, and cosmic rays. Not that it's even a massive amount in the grand scheme of things

It's hardly surprising is it? If you were going to pick a fruit that looked radioactive it would be a banana or a star fruit.

I'd hate to sit near the work microwave. I'd strike up conversations with everyone as they were waiting. I'm so easily distracted.

We've known about radioactive bananas for some time. Eric is bananaman after all.

I really miss Banana Man. Much more than Danger Mouse and Super Ted, Banana Man was great.

I grew a capsicum pepper last summer that looked mutant.

I know someone who genuinely looks like Penfold. He knows it, too. People say 'Ooh, you look just like that... who is it?' Then there is an uncomfortable silence when they realise that he clearly looks like Penfold and they either have to say that out loud, or lie.

I bloody love Penfold.

You single, Squoosh? I could hook you up with a real life one...