Thursday, October 14, 2010

Microwaved water kills plant hoax

Excerpt from Indonesian Hoax Email
Subject: air di microwave (bahaya penggunaan oven microwave)
AIR DI MICROWAVE
Lihat apa yang terjadi terhadap tanaman dan bayangkan apa yang akan terjadi
dalam tubuh Anda !

Di bawah ini ada proyek ilmiah yang membagi air bersih ke dalam dua bagian.
Bagian pertama direbus dengan panci di atas kompor, dan kedua direbus dengan
oven microwave.

Setelah didinginkan, air tersebut digunakan untuk menyiram dua tanaman yang
sejenis untuk melihat apakah ada perbedaan pertumbuhannya antara yang disiram
dengan air rebus biasa dan air rebus dengan oven microwave.

Tujuannya untuk melihat apakah susunan energi dari air akan berbahaya jika
dimasukkan ke dalam oven microwave. Sebagai hasilnya, perbedaannya benar-benar mengejutkan.

SATU MINGGU, DAHAN YANG DIPOTONG
Walaupun kedua dahan masih hidup, namun yang diberi air microwave menjadi layu
dan tidak sehat, sementara yang mempergunakan air rebus tetap segar dan sehat.

HARI PERTAMA

HARI KETIGA

HARI KE LIMA

HARI KE TUJUH

HARI KE SEMBILAN
The email containing story of microwaved water experiment kill a plant slowly, is it true? I try to search it in the internet, and I must say, I found no evidence that the story and the photograph is hoax. In other words, it was real. Scared of house microwave now? What about throwing it away before you got cancer? No way!
Why not? Because although it is real, not necessarily means it is true. In other words, it is really the result of the experiment, but it is not true that microwaved water kills plant or dangerous for the living organism whatsoever. How is this possible?


First we should see the "original message" of this chain email.  I cant confirm the origin of the the mail precisely, but there's a high probability it comes from this website
(the picture is the same)
We can see that this "proyek ilmiah" or scientific project is indeed "very scientific" (performed by a young student for a science fair, very "scientific") This is why, although the founding is very intriguing, we don't see it on NATURE magazine or TIME, leave alone SCIENCE. Because the experiment lacks what most scientist expect: REPETITION.
If someone else conduct the exact same experiment as conducted by this little girl, there's a high probability that the result will not be the same. Why is this? Scientist (particularly experimental scientist, or maybe statistics) have a method of making sure the experiment is repeatable, unbiased, objective and TRUE. The most common methods are;
1. Large number of samples, and usually randomized. In contrary, the so called science project has only 1 sample for microwaved water and 1 sample for boiled water; if something happened to the microwaved water-plant, it could be because of anything, for example, the plant got infected by fungus or something else, or maybe had a genetic alteration which eventually killed it)
2. Ensure objectiveness, usually done by what scientist called "double blinding", means that the observer and the experimenter should not know which water is microwaved and which water is boiled. This is done to omit what we know as "experimenter effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer-expectancy_effect according to psychology (Rendy can confirm this) this phenomenon is very natural. In the experiment of the little girl, we could see that there are rooms for biases and subjectivity. The little girl expect something to happen to the plant with microwaved water - that's what she wanted to show in the science fair, anyway. And this - consciously or subconsciously - can develop a different treatment for both of the plant (rough handling,  too much water, etc.)
3. Controlled treatment, which is ensuring that everything else, except the tested variable, is the same for every subject. For example, if we're about to test between microwaved water vs boiled water; both water should come from the same source, purified (water should contain only H2O, or at least, same elements), and both should be heated in the same place (for example Erlenmeyer flask). This experiment lacks of controlled treatment. For example, the boiled water is boiled in a pan on a stove. Most pan are from metal, so we could expect that that she was using metal pan. But metal are not allowed inside microwave, so we can safely assume that she's using something else. What if, for example, she used PET bottle (coca cola plastic bottle, evian). Some research shows that microwave heated PET bottle are more likely to contaminate the water with unhealthy material (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20309737 - this is a scientific journal which is most probably true). If the girl was using this water, it could be that the material from PET is what killed the plant, and not the microwave itself. (this one is true, don't heat your PET bottle inside microwave, folks - your kidneys are going to pay the price)
All the defects on the experiment suggest that it is most probably not true that microwaved water will kill plants. I find it quite difficult to find a nice experiment on the scientific journal about this matter. The professors and doctors seems to conduct a more serious problem than microwaved water over plant. But in youtube, you could find that there's many many people oppose the idea of microwaved water kills plants.
This is only 4 samples, and there's some more if you really look in youtube. Although none of these experiments are really objective, but most of them are better than the chain email we saw earlier. And since that there's a lot of them, the sample size grow larger than the single microwave fact we saw earlier. Most of them say that MICROWAVED WATER DOESN'T KILL THE PLANT!
Is that the truth? I tried to find some other scientific data on the internet. And although "microwave oven" does not really attract so many scientist, but I managed to find some experiments using microwave oven in the 19th century.
This is the closest to water
scientific journal: heating IV fluid on microwave
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4005001
This experiment try to find out if the microwaved IV fluid (the fluid which is used for infusion) has some alteration on its mineral content (IV fluid only consisted of water and some phisiologic mineral (and sometimes sugar)). The result is no alteration. The experiment using IV fluid on its plastic bag. They didn't check any material leeching from the plastic bag, just the mineral. But the plastic for IV fluid should be stable on exposure to microwave. So scientist believe that microwaved IV fluid is most probably safe for infusion. Well, I'd say they will say the same for water.
So.... the conclusion is...
although the experiment is probably real, the result does not necessarily true. microwaved water is safe to drink, and will not kill any plant you watered with (although it is also stupid to microwave water to water plant if you're not conducting any experiment) SO this email is.... well...not a hoax (at least the upper half) but not true. what about the lower half? The lower half is most filled with hoax and "expert opinion" which is from unqualified people and mostly baseless. If it is truly based on a certain scientific paper, those paper are harder to find than needle on haystack. The four most famous person writing the article saying microwave oven is hazardous are Hans Hertel, William Kopp, Joseph Mercola, and Simon Best. All these "scientific information" about microwave are already exist from late 1980 (Hertel - saying that eating microwaved food might cause cancer), Kopp continue in 1996 saying that sovyet union research proofs that microwave is hazardous, most probably these 2 men are real, but their "study" and "paper from russia" never found, and never been reviewed by experts (meanwhile rumors has it that William Kopp changes his name several times in an attempt  to run away from the microwave oven company tried to to kill him - sounds schizo enough? Meanwhile Hertel conduct his experiment with 7 vegetarians in an hotel, eating full diet of microwaved food, but the exact procedure never published, and most scientist didn't give a damn). Joseph Mercola is the one who wrote 10 reason why you should throw away your microwave, his website is www.mercola.com meanwhile Simon Best just add something about cancer and microwave. All of them does not have a solid base on their claim on microwave (Solid means scientific experiment which is published in journal and peer-reviewed) - BTW, Joseph Mercola oppose many many things, microwave is one, and the other is vaccine. Too many vaccine for infant, he said. Off course most of the normal doctor will oppose to what he said.

Saya bertahun-tahun sudah mengetahui masalah microwave ini, bukan terhadap
radiasi yang ditakutkan banyak orang; tetapi bagaimana gelombang microwave bisa
merusak DNA makanan sehingga tubuh tidak bisa mengenalinya. Sehingga tubuh akan
membungkusnya dengan sel lemak untuk melindungi dirinya dari makanan mati itu
atau menyingkirkannya dengan cepat.
Now.. this is interesting. From all the sample I collected in the internet, actually this indonesian mail is the only one claiming this thing. Most probably an indonesian "expert" found out about that plant and want to share his "brilliant" mind with the world. Unfortunately, from the medical view, this is a very far from brilliant and very close to idiotic. Judging from the statement that he/she has know this problem for years, I could only predict that his/her mind could have been disturbed for a quite long time too. He/she made the following claim:
1. Microwave destroy DNA
2. Body does not recognize altered DNA
3. Body will engulfed it with fat to protect itself from the dead food
Well the truth is (most of them will not use scientific journal, because of most of them are too elementary);
1. Microwave most probably does not destroy DNA (the frequency used in microwave is about 2500 MHz, while the frequency needed to make disturb (not destroy) DNA and make cancer, like UV ray is from 750,000,000 MHz to 30,000,000,000 Mhz. The energy is higher when the frequency is higher, as seen in here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Violet). Microwave is very weak, it cannot alter DNA, but it can be absorbed by water and water vapor, making its molecules move very quickly and generate heat.
2. Your body will most probably digest the DNA before absorbing it. DNA and other nucleic acid will be broken down by acid and other digestion enzyme before taken up as pentose sugar, phosphate ion, and free bases. Eventhough you ate cancerous DNA, the DNA will still be destroyed and digested, because it is still consisted from the same material. Very strong radiation can broke down or alter DNA chain, but cannot change its material. Changing the material requires enough energy to trigger nuclear reaction, just like the one you see on the center of the sun.
3. If your body meets some "unknown substance" most probably your immune system will attack that foreign matter. The immunity system in your body exist for that specific purpose. If the your body got poisoned because you eat something wrong, most probably you will get severe diarrhea. Engulfing with fat is a illogical way to dispose a substance from the body.

Bayangkan bagaimana ibu-ibu memanaskan susu di dalam oven yang "aman" ini. Well, I must say... FDA actually disapprove of heating baby milk inside the bottle inside this microwave oven http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/122/Supplement_2/S85
But that is because 1. The bottle is usually from plastic and not always "microwave safe" but mostly its because: 2. bottled milk may be very hot inside while the bottle itself may appear cool.
Bagaimana dengan para suster di Canada yang menghangatkan darah untuk transfusi
pasien dan secara tidak sengaja justru membunuhnya saat darah menjadi mati.
This is the case of Norma Levitt in Oklahoma (1991). Oklahoma is in USA, mind you. This case is real http://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?citeID=4387
(I didn't read all the long court record, but there's summary on another page http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/3142/ ) So in the end, Norma Levitt died because of blood clotting, not because of microwaved blood. BUT, there's research suggest that packed red blood cell shouldn't be microwaved to heat it up, because it could cause "local overheating" which would cause hemolysis (the red blood cell pop up). Blood plasma is still can be heated using microwave. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4025986
Tapi pembuat oven microwave selalu berkata peralatan ini aman. Tidak mengapa,
tetap gunakan peralatan itu. Tanya dokter anda dan saya yakin mereka akan
berkata aman juga. Tetapi buktinya ada di foto tanaman yang sekarat di atas.
Ingatlah, Anda juga makhluk hidup. Jaga diri Anda.
Sure! Ask the right person for the right answer and Ask the wrong person for the wrong answer. For microwaves fact "right" answer, avoid technician, physicist, scientist, and for health fact "right" answer, avoid asking doctors. Instead, get some real answer from a little girl who conduct science project for a science fair. That will give you the closest thing to the truth! nice huh?

FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared By: William P. Kopp
A. R. E. C. Research Operations
TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a

* * * * * * * 

SEPULUH ALASAN MEMBUANG OVEN MICROWAVE ANDA


Dari kesimpulan penelitian medis para ilmuwan dari Swiss, Russia dan Jerman,
kita tidak bisa lagi mengabaikan oven microwave tetap ada di dapur kita.
Berdasarkan riset ini, kami akan simpulkan artikelnya sebagai berikut :

1. Mengkonsumsi makanan yang diproses di oven microwave secara terus menerus
mengakibatkan kerusakan otak jangka panjang sampai permanen karena "kebocoran"
impuls elektrik di dalam otak (depolarisasi atau demagnetisasi jaringan otak)

2. Tubuh manusia tidak dapat melakukan metabolisme (menguraikan) produk yang
tidak dikenal di dalam makanan hasil mocrowave.

3. Produksi hormon pria dan wanita akan berhenti dan/atau berubah jika terus
menerus mengkonsumsi makanan yang dipanaskan dengan oven mocrowave.

4. Efek dari makanan yang diolah dengan microwave bersifat residual/menumpuk
(jangka lama, permanen) di dalam tubuh manusia.

5. Mineral, vitamin dan nutrisi dari semua makanan yang di-microwave akan
berkurang atau berubah sehingga tubuh manusia hanya memeperoleh sedikit bagian
bahkan tidak memperoleh manfaat, atau tubuh manusia menyerap gabungan yang sudah
mengalami perubahan sehingga tidak dapat diolah.

6. Mineral di sayuran berubah menjadi radikal bebas kanker saat dimasak di oven
microwave.

7. Makanan yang diolah dengan microwave mengakibatkan pertumbuhan kanker (tumor)
lambung dan pencernaan. Ini bisa menjelaskan mengenai peningkatan pesat dari
rasio penderita kanker usus besar di Amerika.

8. Mengkonsumsi makanan olahan microwave dalam jangka panjang menyebabkan sel
kanker meningkat di dalam darah manusia.

9. Memakan secara terus menerus masakan olahan microwave menyebabkan penurunan
sistem imun dari kelenjar limpa dan perubahan serum darah.

10. mengkonsumsi makanan microwave menyebabkan hilang daya ingat, konsentrasi,
ketidakstabilan emosi dan penurunan kecerdasan.

Apakah Anda sudah membuang oven microwave Anda?

Setelah anda membuang oven microwave, anda bisa mempergunakan oven toaster (yang
mempergunakan filamen pemanas) sebagai gantinya. Oven itu berkerja baik dan
kecepatannya hampir sama.

Penggunaan transmisi microwave buatan untuk pengontrolan psikologi bawah sadar
(subliminal), sebagai "cuci otak", juga telah dibuktikan. Kami memperoleh
salinan dokumen riset Rusia tahun 1970 dan hasilnya ditulis oleh Drs. Luriadan
Perov menyebutkan kebenaran percobaan klinis di bagian ini.
Like I said before, this article is not supported with solid evidence. The expert saying this "fact" is also opposing the usage of vaccine.
Meanwhile, although I only provide 5, my statement are backed up with evidence:
5 reasons to keep your microwave
1. it kills bacteria in food effectively
scientific journal: microwave to kill microorganism in sausage
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19799673
2. it kills parasites larvae
scientific journal: microwave to kill parasites larva
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16212097
3. it does not alter the protein structure of meat
scientific journal: microwaved meat failed to release certain proteins
4. a certain way of cooking with microwave reduce carcinogens
Grilling or frying meat and poultry can create heterocyclic amines, which may cause cancer. When a scientist and his colleagues briefly microwaved meats and drained off the juices before grilling, most of the precursors of those potential carcinogens were lost along with the juices. Food Chem. Toxicol. 32: 897, 1994 (scientific journal)
5. microwave is more energy efficient (but require further research) from conventional oven
The interesting fact about microwaves:
1. Microwave is used as one option to treat polluted water
scientific journal: microwave for waste treatment
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20623403
2. Microwave is not a very children-friendly appliances, and has the potential to harm children through burns injuries
scientific journal: opening a microwave oven can be harmful for children
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18829804
scientific journal: microwaved instant soup can cause burn injury
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16819351
3. Microwave if can cause ablation to living tissue (Probably used in treating cancer, the term is MWA)
scientific journal: microwave ablation on pig's kidney
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20073552
(this last fact means that you shouldnt apply microwave to your body tissue - maybe this is the background behind the psychology experiment of brainwashing we could see written by Luria and Perov (although I can't find that scientific paper anywhere), but this is clearly contrary with the other context of the email, since in this experiment the microwave is directed directly to the body tissue, not to the food)
That's all about microwave,
like usual, everything you see in the internet is true,
especially in the chain email.

1 comment:

  1. Well your explanation seems pretty legit to me

    ReplyDelete