Measurements and reduction of microwave oven electromagnetic leakage

Abstract

Public believed that radiation leakage from microwave ovens was similar to atomic radiation that could lead to serious health problems, including cancer. For many years up to now, domestic microwave ovens were not considered to leak levels of microwave radiation that caused concerns; consequently, they have not been regularly monitored. According to Australian Standard 3301, the maximum allowable leakage from a microwave oven is 5 mW/ cm² at 5 cm distance from the oven surface. These safety standards were based on the belief that the only danger from exposure to high intensity microwave energy is a thermal or overheating effect. Since the leakage from microwave oven becoming a new issue, this paper is proposed to investigate the effect of oven leakage, the issue of emission levels versus exposure levels and the application of power density measurements in order to measure the leakage from microwave ovens. There are six measurements have been conducted and it is found that all of the microwave ovens are having leakage. From the measurement results, only one microwave oven gives a value of 10.19 mW/cm 2 which is exceeded the limit of 5mW/cm². Due to this reason, ti is suggested to use Conductive Transparent Film to reduce the leakage from the microwave oven, since it is a relevant way in shielding to prevent unwanted leakage from the microwave oven. The result shows that the Conductive Transparent Film can reduce the microwave oven leakage by about 12.39 dB to 8.53 dB.

Microwave usage and cancer: Do microwaves cause cancer?

“…Although there have been a few incidences of microwave leakage (1,10,(25)(26)(27) as reported by some researchers, the level of leakage is relatively very low (below 11 mW/cm 2 ) and not enough to cause concern (28). The level of power density (produced from electromagnetic spectrum) and its potential to cause harm to human is well understood by referring the ), have set a product emission limit of 50 watts per square metre (W/m2) which is equivalent to 5 mW/cm 2 at any point 5 cm away from the external surfaces of the oven (1).…”

Evaluación de Emisiones Electromagnéticas Producidas por Hornos Microondas

“…Un estudio más reciente (Muhammad Zin et al, 2011) realizó mediciones en 6 hornos encontrando que en un sólo horno microondas da un valor de 10,19 mW/cm2 que supera el límite de 5mW/cm². En otro estudio realizado en 117 hornos de uso domésti-co y en restaurantes en Cisjordania-Palestina (Lahham & Sharabati, 2013), con potencias entre 1000 y 1600 W y entre 1 y 20 meses de funcionamiento, se encontraron valores entre 0,43 a 16,4 μW/cm 2 con un valor promedio de 3,64 μW/cm 2 .…”