Hi All,

Considering the recent discussion on the health of microwaved foods, I
thought the following might be of interest....

Love, Liza

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Court Removes Gag Order from Swiss Scientist on Microwaved Food

<snip> In 1991 Hans Ulrich Hertel and a Lausanne University professor
published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens
could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional
means.  Significant changes were discovered in the blood of the volunteers
who consumed foods cooked in the microwave oven.  These changes included a
decrease in all haemoglobin values and cholesterol values, especially the
HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values and ratio. 
Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease
following the intake of
 microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants. <snip>

An article appeared in issue number 19 of the Journal Franz Weber in which
it was stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had
cancer- type effects on the blood.  The article was followed by the
research paper itself. 

On 7 August 1992 the Swiss Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of
Household Appliances brought an action against the applicant in the Canton
of Berne Commercial Court.  It produced an expert report by a professor at
Zürich Federal Institute of
Technology from which it appeared that the applicant's research was
worthless and his findings untenable. 

<snip> A powerful trade organisation, the Swiss Association of Dealers for
Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry, known simply as FEA, struck
swiftly.  They forced the President of the Court of Seftigen, Kanton Bern,
to issue a 'gag
order' against Hertel and Blanc. 

In March 1993, the court handed down this decision based upon the complaint
of the FEA: "Consideration.  1. Request from the plaintiff (FEA) to
prohibit the defendant (Dr Ing. Hans Hertel) from declaring that food
prepared in the microwave oven shall be dangerous to health and lead to
changes in the blood of consumers, giving reference to pathologic troubles
as also indicative for the beginning of a cancerous process.  The defendant
shall be prohibited from repeating such a statement in publications
and in public talks by punishment laid down in the law."

However, in 1998 that decision was reversed.  In a judgment delivered at
Strasbourg on 25 August 1998 in the case of Hertel v. Switzerland, the
European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of
Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision.  Under Article 50 of the Convention,
the Court awarded the applicant a specified sum for legal costs and
expenses. <snip>


-- 
[log in to unmask] (Liza May)