|
?:reviewBody
|
-
On 31 March 2018, Snowriders Australia, a web site dedicated to ski and snowboarding enthusiasts, posted a story reporting the Environmental Protection Agency will ban manufactured snow after scientists discovered it contains high concentrations of di-hydrogen monoxide (DHMO): The story is an apparent April Fool's prank playing on a long-running hoax. But some readers expressed concern about encountering lethal DHMO while enjoying winter sports. However, dihydrogen monoxide is H2O — in other words, water. The hoax has been fooling people for years. In 2004, city officials in Aliso Viejo, an affluent city in Orange County, California nearly banned foam cups after falling for it and learning DHMO was used in the manufacturing process from a prank web site, DHMO.org (a careful inspection reveals a small disclaimer, Content veracity not implied at the bottom of the site). But the hoax has been floating around since before the Internet even existed as we know it. It made an appearance as far back as 1983, in the now-closed Michigan weekly paper The Durrant Express as an April Fool's Day joke. The article warned that inhaling the chemical could be deadly, which is of course true as inhaling water can cause death by drowning.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}