Microwave oven
The development of the cavity magnetron in the UK made possible the production of electromagnetic waves of a small enough wavelength (microwaves). American engineer Percy Spencer is generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven after World War II from radar technology developed during the war. Named the "Radarange", it was first sold in 1946. Raytheon later licensed its patents for a home-use microwave oven that was first introduced by Tappan in 1955, but these units were still too large and expensive for general home use. Sharp Corporation introduced the first microwave oven with a turntable between 1964 and 1966. The countertop microwave oven was first introduced in 1967 by the Amana Corporation. After Sharp introduced low-cost microwave ovens affordable for residential use in the late 1970s, their use spread into commercial and residential kitchens around the world. In addition to their use in cooking food, types of microwave ovens are used for heating in many industrial processes.
Bronchiolitis obliterans
In 2007 a heavy consumer of microwaved popcorn was diagnosed by a doctor in Denver with "popcorn lung," the first known case involving a consumer. On 16 January 2008, it was announced that Wayne Watson, a Denver man who developed "popcorn lung" after inhaling fumes from microwaved popcorn, was suing the Kroger grocery store chain and its affiliates. In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Watson's attorney claimed that the companies "failed to warn that preparing microwave popcorn in a microwave oven as intended and smelling the buttery aroma could expose the consumer to an inhalation hazard and a risk of lung injury." On 19 September 2012 a jury in U.S. District Court in Denver awarded $2.3 million in actual damages and $5 million in punitive damages to Watson. Defendants included Gilster-Mary Lee, the manufacturer; Kroger, and Kroger's subsidiary Dillons, owners of King Soopers & City Market, a Colorado regional supermarket chain.