You've Got Mail

There are four kinds of email. At the top there's the real stuff, sent by people you know, specially written for you. At the bottom there's spam: the chance to buy a counterfeit Rolex, share in a multimillion-dollar lottery prize, or increase the size of assorted body parts, whether you have them or not. Somewhere in between are the newsletters that you actually subscribed to and sometimes read, and the forwarded messages from friends. Sometimes these forwarded messages are just interesting jokes, pictures, or news reports, but sometimes they qualify as urban legends or are simply hoaxes. Traditional urban legends are campfire tales of escaped lunatics and malevolent ghosts, but the internet has given new life to urban legends. And now, cyberspace is filled, not just with evil lurkers, but health alerts as well.

One of the warnings making the rounds is an alert about dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) also known as hydroxyl acid, the principle component of acid rain. The email alert warns: "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." Of course the mailing is a spoof, and DHMO is another way of saying H2O.

Not a spoof, but a hoax (spoofs are funny, hoaxes aren't) is a warning about a date rape drug called Progesterex. Progesterex, according to the email that has been around since 1999, is used in combination with flunitrazepam (Rohypnol). While the flunitrazepam induces sedation – it's really no different from other benzodiazepine sedatives – the Progesterex removes the risk of pregnancy through permanent sterilization. The email explains that Progesterex is intended for veterinary use, to permanently sterilize large animals. The fact is, there is no such drug, but college health counselors have put in lots of time debunking this hoax.

Health hoaxes are so prevalent that the United States Centers for Disease Control used to devote a section of their website to debunking these warnings. One of the earliest CDC notices was about an email warning of the Klingerman virus. According to the email that has been going the rounds since 2001, people would receive a large blue envelope imprinted: "A gift for you from the Klingerman Foundation." Inside would be a sponge, impregnated with a new virus strain. The email warns: "Those who have come in contact with the Klingerman Virus have been hospitalized with severe dysentery. So far seven of the twenty-three victims have died. There is no legitimate Klingerman Foundation mailing unsolicited gifts." The CDC offers assurance that there is neither a Klingerman Foundation nor a Klingerman virus.

Then there's a classic that has been around for almost a decade, warning of the dangers of drinking soda from a can. While Snopes.com has collected various versions, the idea is the same: rats urinate on soda kept in supermarket storerooms. The rat urine contains deadly viruses. If the can isn't washed carefully, the hantavirus or leptospirosis, depending on which version you read, is fatal within 24 hours. While hantavirus is a serious disease, and may be spread by contaminated rodent droppings, urine, or saliva, there really haven't been any reports of death by soda can.

A more recent CDC response concerns an email warning that freezing water in plastic bottles releases cancer-causing dioxins. The official response is that there are no dioxins in plastic, and in any event, freezing just retards leaching of chemicals from plastics. The real concern should be about cooking in plastic containers, where some of the plasticizers may be released by heat. In 1979, The New England Journal of Medicine published a warning about the hazards of drinking hot tea with lemon from a polystyrene cup – but that warning was real.

By now, there are a large number of sites devoted to debunking internet hoaxes:

But not all health alerts are false. One of the most widely distributed warnings concerns Sour Spray Candy, and tells the story of a young girl who took the top off a candy spray and drank the liquid directly, causing laryngospasm. There's clearly some truth to this mailing, because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a warning about improper use of this candy.

Sometimes, the mailings are actually beneficial. There's one that alerts readers to The Breast Cancer Site, where clicking on a link paid for by sponsors will help fund a free mammogram. A similar mailing offers links to The Hunger Site, which will donate food to people in need, and similar sites.

Email hoaxes routinely warn "Send this to everyone you know." Unless you know what you're sending, it may be best to simply put the message in the trash.

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