March 15, 2004
Aliso Viejo votes on dangers of dihydrogen monoxide

Associated Press / ContraCosta Times: South state city falls for Web hoax on water

ALISO VIEJO - City 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.

Then they learned that dihydrogen monoxide -- H2O for short -- is the scientific term for water.

"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.

(via Aftenposten)

Some web pages dedicated to the Cause:

Just to eliminate all doubt: It's water. Water. Not dangerous (unless drunk in very very large quantities, pure (true!) or inhaled instead of air when breathing (drowning)...

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I have just given the DHMO.org page to a coworker that spams everybody with her urban legends and the like. And I am timing her before that thing makes its rounds in the intranet :)

Posted by: Camilo on March 17, 2004 12:43 AM
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CowPi: Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide (April 1, 2004 12:53 PM)
" From a toxic chemical alert (via Anders): Dihydrogen monoxide is an colorless, odorless, tasteless chemical that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled. Oh great! Some other chemical we need to be worried about. Here are just some of the..."
CowPi: Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide (April 1, 2004 12:56 PM)
" From a toxic chemical alert (via Anders): Dihydrogen monoxide is an colorless, odorless, tasteless chemical that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled. Oh great! Some other chemical we need to be worried about. Here are just some of the..."
CowPi: Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide (April 1, 2004 01:23 PM)
" From a toxic chemical alert (via Anders): Dihydrogen monoxide is an colorless, odorless, tasteless chemical that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled. Oh great! Some other chemical we need to be worried about. Here are just some of the..."
Anders Jacobsen's blog: Is dihydrogen monoxide a bad thing? (November 18, 2004 07:58 PM)
"No. Dihydrogen Monoxide (H2O) is plain old water. The dihydrogen monoxide-scare you might have heard is a prank. More information: [...]"

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