Microwave manufacturers left with egg on their faces

May 1 2004

They report a case of a 9 year old girl who sustained a serious eye injury from an exploding microwaved egg.

The girl reheated a previously boiled egg (with an intact shell) using a domestic microwave oven at full power for about 40 seconds. Around 30 seconds later, as she was carrying it to the dining area, the egg exploded with part of it hitting her right eye and face.

She sustained a full thickness corneal perforation and rupture of the lens capsule, reducing her vision to being able to see only hand movements. Three months after treatment, her vision recovered.

In their instruction manuals, manufacturers of microwave ovens warn against heating eggs with an intact shell and recommend multiple piercing before cooking or heating eggs, even those already boiled, write the authors.

In view of the potential seriousness of injury from exploding microwaved eggs, such warnings should be made more obvious, possibly being displayed on the microwave oven itself, they conclude.