Sociotechnology: Microwave hazards: Are U.S. standards for safe exposure levels adequate? One IEEE member warns of smug complacency; another responds

What is the truth about microwave hazards? The publication in 1977 of The Zapping of America: Microwaves, Their Deadly Risk, attracted much attention throughout the United States, particularly within the electronics industry, because it was heralded by its publicists as a major expose of the dangers of microwave radiation - dangers “hidden from you by the Pentagon, the State Department, and the electronics industry.” Lending apparent credibility to the book, which was published by W. W. Norton, was the fact that it was written by Paul Brodeur and based on two articles by him in The New Yorker (Dec. 13 and 20, 1976). The author, an award-winning science writer, had previously written about the asbestos and vinyl-chloride industries.