A rose by any other name...could kill you

GMOs, (Not-so)Deadly Apple juice and the most dangerous chemical in the world.

The most dangerous chemical in the world is found in almost every type of food, but the government won’t ban it, or even require it to be labeled.  Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is a major part of acid rain and it can be deadly to inhale. DHMO inhalation on average kills two children aged 14 years or younger every day (CDC). But, the major media outlets and their corporate sponsors run propaganda campaigns touting the benefit of DHMO.

DHMO really is the most deadly and destructive chemical in the world. Damage caused by DHMO costs the government and insurance companies billions of dollars every year. DHMO has been a major cause of death and destruction in some of the worst disasters in recent memory.

Hopefully, something about this doesn’t smell quite right to you, although I am telling the complete 100% percent, factual, sourced truth.

Well, mostly.

I did however omit the common name of DHMO in favor of its sinister sounding chemical name. There are also a few benefits of DHMO I haven’t mentioned. Like the fact that it improves athletic performance, it is essential to functioning ecosystems, and the fact that there would be no life on this planet without DHMO.

That’s right, dihydrogen monoxide is an odorless, colorless killer, but humanity has no choice but to live in fear of the dangers posed by DHMO.

Alright, so DHMO is really the long-form chemical name for the chemical formula H₂0.

Water. It is deadly. 

Thanks to DHMO.org for this image

Every week it seems that there is a VNR on the local or national news. A daytime talk show host has someone on their show with a doctor title (although they don’t always tell you what the doctorate is in) who tells the audience in a concerned and sympathetic voice why they should be afraid of what is in their food.

Enter “Frankenfoods”  like the so-called Golden Rice. Be afraid- be very afraid. They are not natural. They are made by mad scientists or some type of alchemists. Of course, keeping things the way they are found in nature is always better, right?  (See, natural fallacy). So stop drinking your artificially purified water (including bottled “spring” water, it has to be purified before it can be sold).

Facebook activists, documentary film makers and others have brought the anti-GMO debate onto the national stage.

Wait, I think I’ve heard this before…

Two summers ago, it was Dr. Oz, the white-toothed TV doctor who could easily find work as a used car salesman, who made American audiences aware of the danger of drinking apple juice in his segment “Arsenic in Apple Juice.”

America's response: “What?! Arsenic is a deadly chemical used in terror attacks and it is in our apple juice! I give that to my kids.”

And that is just the type of sensational headline and reaction the Dr. Oz and his writers –or, more to the point, the companies that advertise in his time slot –love.

What an important thing to bring to light: an everyday substance that can cause real danger to vulnerable, innocent children. Pictures of little Suzy in pigtails drinking a bottle of drain cleaner springs to mind.

And we can’t have that. Poisoning kids is wrong.

End of story.

These companies should be flogged, drawn and quartered and run out of America. This isn’t some third-world country where companies can just exploit the health of children for corporate gain. Mom blogs and Facebook groups took action in outrage, forcing the FDA to announce that it was reevaluating its arsenic standards.

Well, I am glad that the good Doctor saved our children from “Arsenic in Apple Juice.”

On second thought, I call Bull*&%t.

People have been drinking apple juice for decades, and we are just finding out about it know. So where are the lines of victims carrying their children to Emergency Rooms? Where are the insurance forms that ask:

Please Check Yes or No for the following:

Are You a Smoker:

Do You drink Apple Juice:

Subsequent reports found that Dr. Oz’s claims had several faults. First, not all arsenic is toxic. There is the inorganic chemical variety, which is what was put in the terrorist letters. Then there is the organic variety, which is benign. Then, there is the fact that every test that tried to replicate Dr. Oz’s results (including the FDA) could only find levels that were six time lower than Dr. Oz’s. In fact, arsenic is generally always present in the human body. So, as long as apple juice is not the only thing that one eats or drinks, there is nothing to worry about (and likely not even then).

Franken-Food for Vitamins?

There might also be arsenic in rice, according to several more scientific studies. Although the levels are not likely to be a risk to any Americans.

However, in many parts of the world, hundreds of millions of people can only afford to eat rice for almost every meal.  Arsenic is only one of the chemicals that someone who eats rice for almost every meal needs to worry about.  Pesticides, which contain chemicals that make arsenic look like a candy cane,  have to be sprayed on rice to keep insects from eating the crop. Oh, and the fact that a rice-only diet doesn’t have a lot of those vitamin things.

Genetically-modified "Golden" rice is resistant to insects, so it doesn’t require pesticide sprays and it has increased levels of beta-keratin which helps with the human body synthesize and absorb vitamins. So, Golden Rice is a short term solution to keeping the poor healthy and pesticide-free. What a terrible thing these mad scientists are doing.

But, Monsanto…, say the activists. Well, Monsanto may be the epitome of shitty, big-businesses -pardon my French. If one wants to protest their business practices, fine. But just because I don’t trust Fords, doesn’t mean that I will give up driving altogether.

Hundreds of companies use bad business practices. The only time they really change is when one of two things happens:

One, the government takes legal action against a company to the extent that it hurts the bottom-line – but lobbying paying companies don’t see that extensive action very often.

Or, public opinion creates enough of a controversy that it hurts a company’s bottom line.

That is just the problem. Like Monsanto or not, like GMOs or not they outrage being created isn't about what the TV, or Facebook, or other  actvists sources tell us.

Creating a public scare, or public outrage is just a way to get things done. Public opinion generally still relies on what used to be the fourth estate the (press/media) of American freedom to put a check on the government and shady businesses. Big businesses now mostly control the media, which have a large stake in swaying politicians through their checkbooks.

So, the point is that the media, Dr Oz and the anti-X activists are selling something. Which makes them completely trustworthy.