[MoonStar]

Microwave Popcorn to Omit a Risky Chemical
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OMAHA, Neb. Sept. 5 (AP) — Four of the nation’s biggest microwave popcorn makers are working to remove a flavoring chemical from their products linked to a lung ailment in popcorn plant workers while reassuring consumers about the safety of the snack.

Several of the companies discussed their plans Wednesday, a day after a leading lung research hospital warned that consumers also might be in danger from the buttery flavoring diacetyl.

The three companies that sell Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Pop Secret and Jolly Time microwave popcorn said they planned to change the recipes for their butter-flavored microwave popcorn to remove diacetyl.

Diacetyl has been linked to cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare life-threatening disease often called popcorn lung.

ConAgra Foods Inc., General Mills and the American Pop Corn Company all promised to make the change because of safety concerns. Together those companies accounted for more than 80 percent of the market for microwave popcorn over the last 12 months, according to the research firm Information Resources Inc.

Last week, another popcorn manufacturer, the Weaver Popcorn Company of Indianapolis, said it would replace the butter flavoring ingredient because of consumer concern.

A pulmonary specialist at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver had written to federal agencies to say doctors there believed they had the first case of a consumer who had developed lung disease from the fumes of making microwave popcorn several times a day for years, according to reports Tuesday.

Dr. Cecile Rose sent the letter to federal health officials in July.

ConAgra, which makes Orville Redenbacher and Act II popcorn, said it would make the change over the next year.

General Mills, which sells but does not make Pop Secret popcorn, said it planned to phase out diacetyl soon, but a company spokesman, Tom Forsythe, said he was not sure how quickly that could be done.

A spokeswoman for American Pop Corn, which makes Jolly Time, said the company had been working on a new recipe without diacetyl for several months.

The first government study of fumes produced by microwave popcorn at home is to be published as soon as this month, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
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Popcorn Lung Patient Inhaled Fumes Daily
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/A...rn-Safety.html

[Ilikemyscarf]

This is sort of related to this topic. In my psychophysiological class, my teacher mentioned that if you stand close enough to the microwave, there is a huge possibility that leaking microwaves which are invisible to the human eye can gradually cause cancer.

[MossadConspiracy]

your teacher is wrong

[Ilikemyscarf]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

your teacher is wrong

How so? ..

[MossadConspiracy]

he said that exposure to radiation from a microwave oven would eventually cause cancer (and even that theres a "huge possibility" of it), which is wrong

ws

[Ilikemyscarf]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

he said that exposure to radiation from a microwave oven would eventually cause cancer (and even that theres a "huge possibility" of it), which is wrong

ws

Oops, not his exact words. My mistake. But he said something along those lines.

[MossadConspiracy]

well, radiation from microwave ovens has never been shown to be linked to any type of cancer, so if he suggested that then he should stick to teaching psychophysiology instead of environmental health

ws

[Ilikemyscarf]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

well, radiation from microwave ovens has never been shown to be linked to any type of cancer, so if he suggested that then he should stick to teaching psychophysiology instead of environmental health

ws

Provide proof, please.

[MossadConspiracy]

none of them are right.

Websites can post anything, scientific literature is where real data from actual studies can be found (but you have to know how to tell good ones from bad ones)

anyway, here are some abstracts for you, if you have access to the full articles you can read them

Self-reported electrical appliance use and risk of adult brain tumors.
Kleinerman RA, Linet MS, Hatch EE, Tarone RE, Black PM, Selker RG, Shapiro WR, Fine HA, Inskip PD.

Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 6120 Executive Boulevard, EPS 7044, Rockville, MD 20852-7238, USA. kleinerr@mail.nih.gov



Electrical appliances produce the highest intensity exposures to residential extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields. The authors investigated whether appliances may be associated with adult brain tumors in a hospital-based case-control study at three centers in the United States from 1994 to 1998. A total of 410 glioma, 178 meningioma, and 90 acoustic neuroma cases and 686 controls responded to a self-administered questionnaire about 14 electrical appliances. There was little evidence of association between brain tumors and curling iron, heating pad, vibrating massager, electric blanket, heated water bed, sound system, computer, television, humidifier, microwave oven, and electric stove. Ever use of hair dryers was associated with glioma (odds ratio = 1.7, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 2.5), but there was no evidence of increasing risk with increasing amount of use. In men, meningioma was associated with electric shaver use (odds ratio = 10.9, 95% confidence interval: 2.3, 50), and odds ratios increased with cumulative minutes of use, although they were based on only two nonexposed cases. Recall bias for appliances used regularly near the head or chance may provide an alternative explanation for the observed associations. Overall, results indicate that extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields from commonly used household appliances are unlikely to increase the risk of brain tumors.

PMID: 15632263 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) and brain cancer in adults and children: review and comment.
Gurney JG, van Wijngaarden E.

Division of Epidemiology/Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

Epidemiologic and experimental research on the potential carcinogenic effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) has now been conducted for over two decades. Cancer epidemiology studies in relation to EMF have focused primarily on brain cancer and leukemia, both from residential sources of exposure in children and adults and from occupational exposure in adult men. Because genotoxic effects of EMF have not been shown, most recent laboratory research has attempted to show biological effects that could be related to cancer promotion. In this report, we briefly review residential and occupational EMF studies on brain cancer. We also provide a general review of experimental studies as they relate both to the biological plausibility of an EMF-brain cancer relation and to the insufficiency of such research to help guide exposure assessment in epidemiologic studies. We conclude from our review that no recent research, either epidemiologic or experimental, has emerged to provide reasonable support for a causal role of EMF on brain cancer.

(by the way, EMF from generators and cell phone towers and so on are different from microwave radiation from an oven which has much less energy)

[MossadConspiracy]

Intrauterine effects of electromagnetic fields--(low frequency, mid-frequency RF, and microwave): review of epidemiologic studies.
Robert E.

Institut Européen des Genomutations, Lyon, France. robieg@cismsun.univ-lyon1.fr

Electromagnetic radiations are named according to frequency or to wavelength (which is inversely proportional to frequency) and create electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Frequencies widely vary according to sources: high-voltage power lines, electrically heated beds, MRI, VDTs, microwave ovens, satellite, and radio/TV transmissions or cellular phone transmitters/receivers. Public concern has increased about the potential health effects of EMFs. There are arguments in favour of EMFs being biologically active, but no mechanism has been identified that explains the link between EMFs and bioeffects. Human data reviewed concern the potential reproductive effects (mainly spontaneous abortions, low birthweight and congenital malformations) of exposure to sources of EMFs: maternal residence, electrically heated beds, occupational exposure (mainly video display terminals), and medical exposures. The available epidemiologic studies all have limitations that prevent to draw clearcut conclusions on the effects of EMFs on human reproduction. EMFs are ubiquitous and unavoidable exposures. The matter of possible effects cannot be considered closed, but until our understanding of the biologic important parameters of EMFs exposures is stronger,design of new studies will be difficult and small epidemiologic studies are unlikely to provide definitive answers and should not be given high priority. No conclusion can be drawn for radiofrequencies and microwaves because of lack of data. There is no convincing evidence today that EMFs of the sort pregnant women or potential fathers meet in occupational or daily life exposures does any harm to the human reproductive process.

thats an abstract about birth defects but its along the same lines, cancers and congenital defects are often generated by similar mechanisms

[Ilikemyscarf]

Thank you, I will look into it.

[MossadConspiracy]

if you really want to do hardcore research on it you're gonna have to get access to old articles because the research on microwave ovens was mostly done in the 70s and 80s so theyre not online.

I wouldnt worry about it though

ws

[MoonStar]

so yeah basically microwaves safe, fake butter in popcorn bad.

----

Really?
The Claim: People Shouldn’t Stand Too Close to a Microwave
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/health/10real.html

THE FACTS

Considering how long microwave ovens have been around, one would think that any concerns about their safety would have been resolved long ago. But many people continue to wonder whether standing next to a microwave while it’s on can expose them to radiation — and if so, how much.

Although microwave ovens can in fact leak radiation, the levels that might be released are fairly minute.

According to the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, a unit of the Food and Drug Administration that regulates microwave oven safety, every microwave that reaches the market must meet a requirement limiting the amount of radiation it can leak in its lifetime to five milliwatts per square centimeter at roughly two inches away from the oven. According to the center, that is far below the levels of radiation that have been shown to harm humans.

(By comparison, the most common cellphones operate at a peak power of about 1.6 watts or less, and most studies have found no evidence linking the phones to health problems.)

Manufacturers of microwave ovens are also required to line the doors of the machines with metal mesh that prevents microwaves from escaping, and to use a type of door latch that stops the production of microwaves whenever the latch is released.

Those features greatly limit exposure to levels of radiation that are already low. And since the radiation levels drop sharply with increasing distance, the levels two feet away are about one-hundredth the amount at two inches.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Proximity to a microwave oven is not dangerous.

[ChotooMotoo]

Microwave radiation causes molecular rotation. In the case of househole microwave ovens, that energy emision is tuned to the frequency of water rotation. So, your household microwave oven emits energy which allows water molecules to rotate more frequency/faster than in ambient conditions. That rotation causes water molecules to bump into eachother more frequently, hence increasing friction and heat, and eventually resulting in boiling. Cooking something in the microwave is the same as boiling it. That's why meat cooked in the microwave is so yucky. Boiled meat is gross.

You won't get cancer, it's not that kind of "radiation".

[Khairan]

Yeah, the whole "microwaves cause cancer" thing was an old scare that never had any evidence to support it. I'm not sure why your teacher is telling you this.