Student Sparks Talks About Controversial Microwave Rumours [VIDEO]

A Science Fair project done by a high school girl from Sussex suggests that microwaves are bad for human health after photos of her experiment started making the rounds in social networking sites. The post sparked talks about controversial microwave oven stories.

The first part of the experiment started with boiling water on the stove and then boiling another portion in a microwave oven. Once cool, they were used in watering two identical plants. The project continued to Day 9 when the plant watered with water boiled in a microwave turned brown and lost its leaves. This led the girl to believe that microwave heating changes the DNA composition of water.

A Facebook user and mother-of-two Gail Sebastian posted, "Microwaves should be banned in all food establishments." While the result of the Sussex girl's science project has yet to be proven through replicating the experiment in a controlled environment, it did not stop social media users to start talking about the following:

Rumour: The Woman Who Died From a Blood Transfusion

The story of Norma Levitt has been recounted in numerous websites but her name is usually not mentioned in these accounts. This led some readers to believe that the story is a hoax.

Fact: A malpractice lawsuit was filed by representatives of Norma Levitt after her death

According to Warner v. Hillcrest Medical Center (Case Number: 83555), Levitt died on November 8, 1989 at the Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma while on the operating table following a successful surgery. The nurse anesthetic present gave Levitt a transfusion of Levitt's own blood. The file indicates that the blood was warmed up in a kitchen microwave at the employee's lounge. Levitt died minutes later.

Rumour: Microwaved Food Causes Cancer

Food scientist Hans Ulrich Hertel, who previously worked for the food industry in Switzerland, was fired from his job when he started questioning processing procedures using the microwave oven. By 1991, Hertel and a colleague from Lausanne University published their paper on microwave ovens posing a great risk to human health.

Hertel was not alone in doing a clinical study about the negative effects of microwave cooking at the time because a separate study published by Journal Franz Weber suggested that microwave cooking causes cancer.

The Swiss Association of Dealers in Electroapparatuses, known as FEA in Switzerland, went to court in 1991 to issue a gag order for Hertel. By 1998, the decision was reversed in Hertel v. Switzerland. The European Court of Human Rights held that the gag order was a violation of the food scientist's rights. Switzerland was ordered by the court to pay Hertel for this violation.

Rumour: Microwave Cooking Destroys Nutrients and Minerals in Food

The Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences in India released a 2013 study titled "Changes in the levels of LPO and GSH in Swiss albino mice liver after continuous intake of food exposed to Microwave radiations". The researchers noted in their paper that "microwave exposed food exhibit hepatotoxicity".

Britain's Lancet medical journal reported in 1989 that heating milk in a microwave oven converts some amino acids to unhealthy trans-fat.

Video Credit: Youtube/Mohit Mangla