If you thought that BPA was the end of dangers in plastic, think again. The plastic industry cleverly introduce BPS as the stereo enantiomer of Bisphenol A, its the same thing. Think of your left and right hand, they are the same, but mirror images. This is the way that BPA and BPS are related chemically. Same nasty hormone simulating chemical, bad for your health, released when the plastics are heated, the microwave will heat the plastics and release the BPS into your food or beverage. I recommend only using the microwave to heat water in a glass measuring cup, preferably made of thermal shock tolerant borosilicate glass. Its not just BPS, there are other plastic chemicals that I cannot talk about. The industry is keen on litigating against people like me who spill the beans on what they are doing. I am only sharing the truth about the dangers of microwaving plastic, especially if your are heating food in plastics.
Defense Technology Repurposed
Microwave ovens were a spin off of defense radar imaging technologies developed before, during and after World War II. Radar range was the original name for microwave ovens.
Raytheon built the first microwave over in 1947, 750lbs, it was almost 6 ft tall, costing $53,000 in todays dollars. Running on 3,000 watts, the first one was installed on a nuclear powered cargo ship called the NS Savannah.
The early commercial microwave from Raytheon was about $20,000, limiting its sales appeal. The Tappan Stove Company of Ohio, licensed the microwave tech from Raytheon, but their first model sold for $11,500 and had to be plugged into a 220v outlet. When Raytheon acquired appliance manufacturer Amana, they introduce the first popular Home Microwave for a mere $3,500, or $495 in 1967.
Modern Microwaves
Microwave Skeptics
I know people who do like microwave ovens at all. They are away of molecular energy kinetics at some level, and are skeptical of the safety of bombarding food with radio frequency electrodynamic radiation. They are considered that side reactions will form by localized heating, causing strange chemicals of questions safety to form in microwaved foods. My mother is one of those skeptics, although she never questioned the idea of throwing a bag of Orville Redenbacher pop-corn in one! We always had one at my parents home when I grew up in the 1980's onward. I am an old millennial, right at the edge of being part of that generation. I don't like being associated with the dingle berry twenty somethings that are part of the millennial group, a batch more concerned about have a smartphone than a car, people who spent time online doing mindless stuff, blissfully unaware of the history of science and technology that went into their computer or smartphone, an entitled batch of people who do not like to work, who would rather travel, and who have poor social skills because of the way that internet has connected everyone more while disconnecting people behind Facebook screens. More on that in another article!
Clandestine Drug Processing
I know from watching Netflix documentary films that sometimes microwave ovens are used to process illegal drugs in foreign countries, I believe for dehydrating stages of processing, like those used to refine cocaine in South America. An old colleague of mine told me that heat lamps are more popular than microwaves for this operation in his home country of Peru.
The modern no load tolerant horizontal box shape microwave emerged from Litton, after they purchased the manufacturing assets of Studebake's Franklin Manufacturing. Shown at a Chicago trade show, sales volumes reach 40,000 units by 1970, and today over 90% of US homes have a microwave oven. No load tolerance means the unit can survive operating without anything in the cooking compartment. Early models would overheat and malfunction unless an millimeter wave range absorbent food or liquid was present in the containment box. Microwave have a metal containment box to trap the microwaves inside, otherwise they would blind someone standing in front of the microwave by cooking the first surface of water flesh that we look through, the front of our eyes would boil. This is how you know if your microwave is sealed or not, if the microwaves leak out, you will go blind almost instantly! I have a hard time getting other people like my mother to understand this, she believe that radiation leaks from the microwave, and surely it does, but mostly in the form of hot air, thermal radiation vented by the magnetrons cooling fan! Waste heat is created when electricity is converted to microwaves inside the magnet assisted harmonic chamber that produced the microwaved.
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| Image of a Magnetron with the Magnet Removed Image Via Wikipedia: HCRS Home Labor Page - http://www.hcrs.at |
Microwave Skeptics
I know people who do like microwave ovens at all. They are away of molecular energy kinetics at some level, and are skeptical of the safety of bombarding food with radio frequency electrodynamic radiation. They are considered that side reactions will form by localized heating, causing strange chemicals of questions safety to form in microwaved foods. My mother is one of those skeptics, although she never questioned the idea of throwing a bag of Orville Redenbacher pop-corn in one! We always had one at my parents home when I grew up in the 1980's onward. I am an old millennial, right at the edge of being part of that generation. I don't like being associated with the dingle berry twenty somethings that are part of the millennial group, a batch more concerned about have a smartphone than a car, people who spent time online doing mindless stuff, blissfully unaware of the history of science and technology that went into their computer or smartphone, an entitled batch of people who do not like to work, who would rather travel, and who have poor social skills because of the way that internet has connected everyone more while disconnecting people behind Facebook screens. More on that in another article!
Clandestine Drug Processing
I know from watching Netflix documentary films that sometimes microwave ovens are used to process illegal drugs in foreign countries, I believe for dehydrating stages of processing, like those used to refine cocaine in South America. An old colleague of mine told me that heat lamps are more popular than microwaves for this operation in his home country of Peru.
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