Here’s something that freaks me out a little. 100 years ago there was practically no microwave radiation on Earth. Why? There is no natural substance that emits microwave radiation at the level of even a single microwave oven. Today, microwaves are literally everywhere, from your kitchen to your cell tower to your office to your airport. They are an essential part of life. Without microwave radiation, the way you eat, the way you communicate, and even things like the way you drive would be drastically different.
What is a microwave anyway?
The term “microwave” refers to any broadcast on a frequency between 300MHz and 300GHz, although in practice it generally means frequencies above the broadcast TV bands. Your router works on microwaves and so does your cell phone. Some of the sensors on your car that help with cruise control and parking might work using microwaves.
Where microwaves really get down and dirty is up in the bands above 6GHz. That’s where you’ll find satellite broadcasting, long-distance lines, and other point-to-point communications. Microwave communication was first used to replace long copper lines for phone service and that’s still a big part of what it’s used for, especially with communications between cell towers and land lines.
Cooking microwaves vs. Communications microwave
Your microwave oven operates at a frequency of about 2.4GHz. So does your home router. But one cooks your food and hopefully the other doesn’t have any really negative effect on you. How can that be?
It’s all in the fine print, as they say. If you use about 1,000 watts of microwave radiation and point it at something organic (like food), the microwave radiation will excite the water molecules inside it. Those moving molecules will create heat and the food heats from the inside.
On the other hand, your home router uses about 1/1000th of a watt, a million times less energy than a microwave oven. The microwave signal from your router carries digital data, while your microwave oven doesn’t. That digital data doesn’t have any bearing on the potentially harmful effects of microwaves, though. Microwaves are just pretty good at sending digital data from point to point. They pass through walls and windows without losing a lot of energy, and that’s why they are used. Bottom line, folks, there’s no reason to think that you’ll cook yourself using Wi-Fi or using your cell phone.
The 5G cancer fallacy
About four years ago, the rumor started to spread that 5G, broadcast over microwaves, was going to give you cancer. I’m no doctor, but I took a look at the available evidence and it didn’t seem to hold up. Again it comes down to the tiny little bit of energy broadcast by cellular devices. (By the way, 5G didn’t give you covid either, but that’s another whole story.)
There continues to be ongoing research as to the health hazards of low-power microwave radiation. So far, there’s nothing to suggest that they are any more hazardous than the other things you deal with in life.
What if we wanted to outlaw microwaves?
Microwaves are everywhere, they’re probably harmless, but they’re all man-made. If we stopped broadcasting on microwave bands, the earth would instantly be free of them once again. But then, the earth would also be free of cell phones, routers, satellite communication, and microwave popcorn. For now I think we’re making the right choice in keeping them.
