Web pranksters warn of dangers of 'dihydrogen monoxide'
ALISO VIEJO, Calif. - City officials were so concerned about the potentially dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they considered banning foam cups after they learned the chemical was used in their production.
Then they learned, to their chagrin, that dihydrogen monoxide — H2O for short — is the scientific term for water.
"It's embarrassing," said City Manager David J. Norman. "We had a paralegal who did bad research."
The paralegal apparently fell victim to one of the many official looking Web sites that have been put up by pranksters to describe dihydrogen monoxide as "an odorless, tasteless chemical" that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled.
A co-worker e-mailed that site to me. At first I laughed, then I realized that it points out just how ignorant and absurdly reactive the general public is. Consider how the word, "chemical" has become maligned. "Oh, that's got chemicals in it - don't touch it!" I hear crap like that all the time nowadays.
Similarly, though on the other side of that coin, is the word "natural" in regards to foodstuffs. If something is described as "natural," that's not necessarily a good thing.
Hell, arsenic is completely "natural" (as in "found in nature") but that doesn't mean I'm going to sprinkle it on my morning corn flakes.
I suspect we are seeing another meaning arsing for the terms "chemical". Everything contains chemicals (except a high-order vacuum) and so the expression "...it's got chemicals in it..." is, at one and the same time, 100% accurate and highly misleading.
I suspect that the term "chemical" will soon aqcuire another meaning - "...An additive contained in a product or recipe which would not normally be present, typically one manufactured by a separate process..."
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
