A junior high school student won the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair by circulating a report about the dangers of 'dihydrogen monoxide.'
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.
In1997, 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 congresspeople; 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.
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's 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."
Last updated: 31 Dectember 2005
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/science/dhmo.asp
Sources:
Glassman, James K. "Dihydrogen Monoxide: A
Killer."
The Denver Post. 22 October 1997
(p. B7).
Ridley, Matt. "Acid Test: Dihydrogen Monoxide:
Now There's a Real Killer."
The Daily Telegraph. 15 September 1997
(p. 20).
Roddy, Dennis B. "Internet-Inspired Prank Lands
4 Teens in Hot Water."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 19 April 1997
(p. A1).
Associated Press. "Sophomore's Project Makes
People Think."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 2 November 1997
(p. E4).
Associated Press. "So SoCal City Falls Victim
to Internet Hoax, Considers Banning Items Made with Water."
The [San Jose] Mercury. 14 March 2004.
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