Irrational?

Today, I opened up a soda bottle at work, and the lid slipped from my hand and fell in the garbage disposal in the sink (garberator for my Canadian friends). 

My hand was too big to fit in there to retrieve it, so I found some others with smaller hands, and asked for their help. Nobody would put their hands in there, citing fears of having their hands chopped up by the blades. 

They said I should just turn it on and let the blades shred the lid. I assumed that would be bad for the blades, and possibly ruin the disposal. 

Eventually, we got it out with a pair of salad tongs. So, my question is, am I right to call these fears irrational? Would you grab a lid out of the disposal if your hand fit? Or would you just blend it up? Have horror movies given you a fear of garbage disposals? Do British people have their own completely separate word for garbage disposals? Or do you call them disposals or garberators? Can I ask more stupid questions in one post? Or is this the limit? Well, is it?