This AP story reports:
[Aliso Viejo c]ity 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. . . .
“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.
As a result, the City Council of this Orange County suburb had been scheduled to vote next week on a proposed law that would have banned the use of foam containers at city-sponsored events. Among the reasons given for the ban were that they were made with a substance that could “threaten human health and safety.” . . .
Wonderful! The L.A. Times reports the same, so I think the I risk that the story is itself a hoax that duped the journalists is low — but even if that did happen, that just makes it wonderful in a different way; the Times also reports that “Seven years ago, four teenagers in Pittsburgh were reprimanded by police for passing out fliers that caused a neighborhood-wide panic about dihydrogen monoxide.” Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.
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