Posted by Larry Hoover on February 25, 2006, at 8:00:01 [reposted on February 27, 2006, at 18:06:53 | original URL]
In reply to Re: how hot does it get inside microwaves? » Larry Hoover, posted by mike99 on February 21, 2006, at 17:15:08
> Thanks for the excellent explanation, Lar. It's been a while since I've taken physics but that really helped to clarify exactly what I was wondering about.
You're welcome. If I wasn't dealing with some disruptive medical issues, I would think I'd be a teacher-geek in the real world. Like a professor or something.
> About the styrene vapour--- wouldn't you say it's at least somewhat likely that I could contaminate my food/drinks with styrene by sharing the same microwave with someone who uses styrofoam in it (I know you responded to this earlier)?
Sorry I failed to address this thoroughly. Styrene vapour is very highly volatile. The reason it would be dangerous in the context of food on a styrofoam plate is the direct contact. The styrene would "rather be" a vapour (from a physical chemistry perspective) than be dissolved in the food. But if it gets into the food, it stays there for at least a little bit of time. Long enough to swallow it, anyway. Vapour phase styrene would dissipate to irrelevantly small concentrations quite quickly. Modern microwave ovens have fans and venting (to carry away steam, mostly), so you have no cross-contamination issue to worry about.
> I'm just wondering if that vapour can't hang around in the air or deposit within the interior of the microwave and then get into my food when I microwave my food.I know of no tendency for styrene to absorb to plastic or metal or any other parts inside a microwave. Non issue.
> With such a toxic compound as styrene unless I'm absolutely certain about the possibility of contaminating my food/drinks I'd prefer to err on the side of caution (which will likely mean lots of cold cereal in my future:(Warm cereal is in your future. I can see it, in my crystal ball.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:613889
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20060202/msgs/613907.html