|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ban DiHydrogen
Monoxide!
|
|
Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless,
tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of
people every year. Most of these deaths are
caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the
dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes
severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion
can include excessive sweating and urination,
and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting
and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who
have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means
certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
- is also known as hydroxl acid, and is the
major component of acid rain.
- contributes to the "greenhouse effect."
- may cause severe burns.
- contributes to the erosion of our natural
landscape.
- accelerates corrosion and rusting of many
metals.
- may cause electrical failures and
decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
- has been found in excised tumors of
terminal cancer patients.
Contamination is reaching epidemic
proportions!
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been
found in almost every stream, lake, and
reservoir in America today. But the pollution is
global, and the contaminant has even been found
in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of
dollars of property damage in the midwest, and
recently California.
Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is
often used:
- as an industrial solvent and coolant.
- in nuclear power plants.
- in the production of styrofoam.
- as a fire retardant.
- in many forms of cruel animal research.
- in the distribution of pesticides. Even
after washing, produce remains contaminated by
this chemical.
- as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and
other food products.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the
ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them
because this practice is still legal. The impact
on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to
ignore it any longer!
The American government has refused to ban
the production, distribution, or use of this
damaging chemical due to its "importance to the
economic health of this nation." In fact, the
navy and other military organizations are
conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing
multi-billion dollar devices to control and
utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds
of military research facilities receive tons of
it through a highly sophisticated underground
distribution network. Many store large
quantities for later use.
|
|
|
Origins:
In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock
Junior High School in Idaho Falls, based his science
fair project on a report similar to the one reproduced
above. Zohner's project, titled "How Gullible Are We?",
involved presenting this report
about "the dangers of dihyrogen monoxide" to fifty
ninth-grade students and asking them what (if anything)
should be done about the chemical. Forty-three students
favored banning it, six were undecided, and only one
correctly recognized that 'dihydrogen monoxide' is
actually H2O — plain old water. Zohner's
analysis of the results he obtained won him first prize
in the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair; garnered him
scads of attention from newspapers, magazines, radio and
TV stations, universities, and congress people; and
prompted the usual round of outcries about how our
ignorant citizenry doesn't read critically and can be
easily misled. In other words, a tempest in a teapot.
Zohner's project wasn't original: spoof petitions
about dihydrogen monoxide and other innocuous "dangers"
have been circulating for years, and Zohner based his
project on a bogus report that was already making the
rounds of the Internet. Moreover, Zohner's target
audience was ninth-graders, a group highly susceptible
to allowing peer pressure to overwhelm critical
thinking. Thrust any piece of paper at the average high
school student with a suggestion about what the
"correct" response to it should be, and peer pressure
pretty much assures you'll get the answer you're looking
for. Someone that age isn't very likely to read a
friend's petition calling for the banning of whale
hunting and critically evaluate the socio-economic and
environmental impact of such a regulation. Instead, he's
probably going to say to himself, "This issue is
obviously important to my friend, and he must have some
good reasons for circulating the petition, so I'll sign
it."
That said, this example does aptly demonstrate the
kind of fallacious reasoning that's thrust at us every
day under the guise of "important information": how with
a little effort, even the most innocuous of substances
can be made to sound like a dangerous threat to human
life. The next time you receive an ominous message such
as the one warning you that sodium lauryl sulfate (a
common foaming ingredient used in shampoos) causes
cancer, with the "proof" being that this caustic
chemical is also used to scrub garage floors, keep in
mind that the very same thing could be said of another
ubiquitous cleaning agent . . . dihydrogen
monoxide.
Update:
In March 2004 the California municipality of Aliso Viejo
(a suburb in Orange County) came within a cat's whisker
of falling for this hoax after a paralegal there
convinced city officials of the danger posed by this
chemical. The leg-pull got so far as a vote having been
scheduled for the City Council on a proposed law that
would have banned the use of foam containers at
city-sponsored events because (among other things) they
were made with DHMO, a substance that could "threaten
human health and safety."
|
|
|
|
|
|
