The world first heard about the dangers of DHMO on April 1st, 1983. However, it went almost completely under the radar until 1997, when a high schooler brought the matter to national attention in a science fair project.
DHMO, abbreviated chemical term for dihydrogen monoxide, has had an incredible impact on our world, and in fact life in general. Rather than state the dangers myself, I’ve included some of the original and newer efforts to educate the population on this issue below:
It has been recognised by some and implemented into awareness and danger campaigns and some safety hazard signs have attempted to warn innocent people:
It’s probably made more of an impact on social media and has had it’s various impact incorporated into memes and other media forms to try and spread public awareness.
The Real Danger of DHMO
Of course it’s a joke. Dihydrogen monoxide is just the fancy chemical name for water, and these awareness campaigns are intended to promote awareness of chemophobia and scientific misinformation by using entirely true facts as a means to reach quite a different end.
The danger here is this misuse of science that relies on scientific ignorance in its intended audience. In the science fair project mentioned at the beginning of this article, the high schooler in question received nearly unanimous agreement to his petition to ban DHMO. Most people did not realise he was talking about water, regardless of the absurdity of having such a dangerous “contaminant” so widely used.
So please remember that the way you say or read something can completely change its meaning even though ALL THE FACTS ARE TRUE. Take so many scientific issues that are blown way out of proportion and apply the “DHMO test” to them!
And if you appreciate this article, maybe you’d like this satire about six other chemicals that should be banned!
Love it!
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Thanks! It was fun to write!
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My class would like to know if there’s any truth to the claim that draining the kinetic molecular energy can result in the crystallization of DHMO and render it less harmful? Or would that be even worse?
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The basic idea is that because DHMO is simply water, when it loses kinetic energy, the temperature drops and begins to form ice. Ice itself generally forms in a crystalline lattice structure. So then it’s up to you to decide what’s more harmful, ice or water? The Titanic might say ice, anyone in a flooded city would say water.
Obviously, this entire article is a joke, applying scientific concepts and terminology to absolutely normal water, but warping the presentation of this information so it appears dangerous.
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