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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

106 replies

alittlethyme · 23/01/2015 12:49

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?

OP posts:
DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 23/01/2015 21:13

My DH always leaves the microwave door open 'to let it air' hmm

The instructions with my new microwave said to do this. Microwaves work by heating the water in your food, wen you've finished cooking you need to let the water from the steam dry out, so, hubby is right and this practice will keep your microwave in good working order for longer.

shoofly · 23/01/2015 22:10

My mil leaves a glass of water in hers - because apparently it's very dangerous if it gets turned on accidentally and it's empty. Not sure how it's likely to be turned on accidentally though, as it lives in the utility room with the plug pulled out!

myotherusernameisbetter · 23/01/2015 22:15

My DH is a perfectly sane educated person but he doesn't like anyone standing in front of the microwave when its on.

CalamitouslyWrong · 23/01/2015 22:21

I had a maths teacher who looked exactly like penfold.

Stratter5 · 23/01/2015 22:29

Jesus Spotted, my XH is the spit of Penfold. There can't be two of them, can there?

Hong Kong Phooey was the best.

bigbluestars · 23/01/2015 22:30

Only last week I had to have the Cobalt 60 source changed in my microwave.

Stratter5 · 23/01/2015 22:30

He's not a maths teacher. There's at least two of them then.

TheSpottedZebra · 23/01/2015 22:32

Mine is an architect.

TheSpottedZebra · 23/01/2015 22:33

Stratters, please say that tours is too, please let it be the same one.

TheSpottedZebra · 23/01/2015 22:33

Yours

myotherusernameisbetter · 23/01/2015 22:33

I know a Penfold lookie likey that was neither a Maths teacher nor previously married, so now there at least 3...

myotherusernameisbetter · 23/01/2015 22:35

..and he's not an architect - he even has the voice and looks like he shops for clothes in build a bear.

tunaandcheesesandwich · 23/01/2015 22:35

Ok there are no microwaves in my office. But I sit right next to the photocopier, under the wifi box and also under the electricity box with millions of wires and cables coming out of it.

Am I doomed?! Shock

CalamitouslyWrong · 23/01/2015 22:36

Maybe they've been cloning an army of penfolds .

myotherusernameisbetter · 23/01/2015 22:41

mine is my boss - he needs an encounter with Baron Greenback that he doesn't manage to wriggle out of.

Bolshybookworm · 23/01/2015 22:54

Haha! I once worked somewhere where a member of staff tried to microwave a plastic test tube containing a radio isotope (actual, real radioactivity- think screeching Geiger counter type stuff). It exploded, coating the inside of the microwave with the radioactive substance.

So they taped the door shut and shoved it in a cupboard Grin

MaidOfStars · 23/01/2015 22:58

Microwaves sit between radio waves and visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum. They are non-ionising radiation waves and there's no evidence they can damage DNA or similar. The only non-ionising wavelength that can cause health problems is UV.

Microwaves indeed work by jiggling water molecules to generate heat. If you were subject to small amounts of leaking microwaves, you might measure a sligh increase in temperature.

You can measure the speed of light using a microwave and a big bar of chocolate. Fact.

dalekanium · 23/01/2015 23:00

I too know a penfold.

He has embraced it and regularly wears a penfold teeshirt.

dalekanium · 23/01/2015 23:01

maid woah. That beats the shit out of the Michelson Morley experiment. :)

MoreBeta · 23/01/2015 23:16

"and believed heavily in nuclear power generation"

Mmmmm...... anyone hear of the Windscale fire in 1957 that nearly caused a full scale nuclear disaster in the UK. had it not been for the extraordinary bravery and foresight of one man who climbed on top of the burning reactor with a fire hose to put it out.

I'm rating nuclear power stations higher danger factor than microwaves.

To be true. Don't use a damaged microwave. Dont put metal in them. Don't 'boil' an egg in them or put sealed bags or jars or indeed any kind of sealed vessel in them - it will explode.

Otherwise safe.

Topseyt · 23/01/2015 23:38

You could try my FIL's method of microwave door seal testing.

PILs were at our house taking care of our 4 year old and our 11 month old whilst hubby and I were away for a few days. The 11 month old was bottle fed and one morning FIL was warming up her breakfast time bottle.

He left the sealing disc in the neck of the bottle with the downward facing teat still in there. He then put it in the microwave for 6 minutes. About halfway through, the tightly sealed bottle exploded, blowing the door of the microwave off. Pieces of bottle also embedded themselves in the ceiling. Shock

Nobody was in the room at the time, so no injuries thankfully, but it has gone down in our family legend.

306235388 · 23/01/2015 23:55

OP - mum? Is that you?

MyFriendlyDaemon · 24/01/2015 00:13

OP if it is of any comfort I was never sure that if the switch was on at an electrical socket but nothing was plugged in electricity wasn't seeping out.

kali110 · 24/01/2015 01:29

We have had a brand new microwave. If you open the door before the time is up it still makes a whirring noise. There is nothing wrong with it. It makes it when you turn the time off and shut tge door too.

Heynowbill · 24/01/2015 01:58

My mother was convinced that her brother had cancer because they had microwave in the house. That was in the 1970s though. I would hope that understanding has moved on a tad since then ...