Ewan's Corner

Posts Tagged ‘science’

This re-posting was inspired by Simon Dingle’s great opinion piece “Cellphones and Cancer” posted on Fin24 today, and all the stupidity surrounding the recent media-hyping of the announcement by the WHO.

Written by Dr. Milton Mermikides, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 00:00, originally from Swift

The skeptic community often provides, most commendably, the calm voice of reason during periods of public scares (and outright panics) such as the MMR and vaccine ‘controversy’, fears surrounding fluoride, mobile phone and Wi-Fi usage, the perils of Facebook, overblown drug risks and the impending doom from microwave ovens. Although opposing false fears is admirable work, it is important that we don’t become blasé and, through habit, allow genuinely concerning public health issues to escape our criticism. By way of a demonstration I would like to share some genuinely alarming information that I recently discovered about a supplementary nutritional practice. It is conducted by a sub-culture of adults for personal use and by (presumably well-meaning) parents in an effort to enhance their children’s performance. It seems, that this has been happening for years and has as yet escaped critical examination, so in this brief time please allow me to present an overview.

The substance is known as Ba-2Na (not barium disulphate – it is in fact an organic mixture) and can be found in green-form, black-form and yellow-form. The latter state being highly desired among users. As it is consumed all over the world, there are numerous names for Ba-2Na (depending on the method of production) including mauz, musala, musa and even, believe it or not, superbum. The latter conjuring up images of a superhero rushing into a phone booth not to don a costume but simply to urinate.

Dosages are bought (sometimes in the street in plain view) in individually ingested units of approximately 200 grams each, consolidated in to ‘bunches’ of 4-7 units. The reported effects include a rush of energy and a sense of contentment and satisfaction. In fact some are so enamored with the substance, that they believe it to be a proof of the existence of God. However, as far as I can discover, there have been no safety testing of this substance, rather worrying considering the following facts, one starts to wonder who is protecting the interests of the dealers.

Ba-2Na is highly genetically modified – often synthesized using a tissue culture – and is virtually unrecognizable from its wild natural counterpart.

This sugary concoction of chemicals includes phenylalanine (a component of aspartame and found in diet drinks, the possible dangers of which are well discussed), threonine (which can be absorbed directly into the human heart), extremely toxic phosphorus (used in matches of all things) and particles of ash. This toxic cocktail is also cut with mind-numbing dopamine and serotonin (which can cause endomyocardial fibrosis) – hence the sense of gratification reported by users- and other biogenic components. The substance can also spread infectious diseases if handled unhygienically, which is sadly often the case.

Parents are forcing their children to consume this gunk under the impression that they will give them a burst of energy and strength – an edge over their peers – however Ba-2Na interrupts the natural digestive function, appetite response and formaldehyde levels in the blood, and no-one really knows the cumulative effect of all these chemicals in the absence of adequate testing. Not to mention the fact that Ba-2Na emits over a 1000 times the ionising radiation of a mobile phone, the health effect of which doesn’t bear talking about. Allergic reactions (bizarrely from users who are allergic to latex) have also been noted but for some unknown reason have not made it to public knowledge.

Finally, the discarded casing of this substance can potentially cause physical harm to others – and most shocking of all – this can even be a source of amusement to the addled brains of users.

It is appalling that we haven’t highlighted these dangers and I suggest an imminent large-scale response. We need to peel back the outer layer to get to the centre of the issue, and then we might have a ray of comfort. If we don’t take this sort of thing seriously, we’ve all slipped up.

A large haul of uncut street Ba-2Na in its highly desirable yellow-form:

Postscript 

Ok so that’s very silly, but other than the ill-concealed name, all the statements I’ve made about the humble banana are basically true, deceptive, but true. Any old nonsense can be supported on a foundation of carefully-selected – and omitted – truths- All this can of course be achieved completely unconsciously. The alternative medicine, pro-homeopathy/anti-‘allopathy’ community, nutritionists, ‘wellness’ ‘experts’ and the anti-vaccination crowd are all deeply guilty of this massaging and careful compilation of truths and the use of scary science-y terms to convince themselves and others of whatever agenda to which they’ve formed an allegiance. Of course, these can be supplemented with a healthy dose of toxic lies – a level to which I haven’t needed to stoop in order to make a case against Ba-2Na.

Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, Milton was raised with wide artistic and scientific influences, an eclecticism that remains with him today. He has a BSc from the London School of Economics, a BMus (Berklee College of Music) and a PhD in music (University of Surrey), and holds commendations for his education and charity work. Milton now lives in London (UK) where he enjoys teaching, performing, composing, producing and writing about music. To learn more please visit miltonline.wordpress.com

Following on from my previous rant informative post on the subject, numerous people (including my lovely wife) let me know about some great Power Balance related news:

• Power wristbands a dud, says ACCC (news.smh.com.au)
• Sports band slammed in Australia (www.news24.com)

as well as much happiness in the skeptic world (scepticsbook.com, Vic Skeptics, Skeptic Money).

In summery Power Balance Australia, when approached by the OZ Competition and Consumer Commission, couldn’t provide *any* credible evidence of their claims that the hologram-powered rubber bands helped the wearer in any way. What a shocker.

The best part is that they are now forced to refund anyone who asks, as well as modify their advertising / packaging to remove false claims – and their website now includes the following statement:

We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of s52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

If you feel you have been misled by our promotions, we wish to unreservedly apologise and offer a full refund.

That should hopefully hammer their Christmas sales.

Feeling a little silly now are we Mick Fanning, Benji Marshall, Brendan Fevola, Damien Oliver, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonardo diCaprio, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Pietersen, Rubens Barrichello, Kate Middleton, P Diddy etc?

For all you South Africans (thanks James) a link to a petition (update: OK Caroline, it’s not a petition, it’s a formal complaint by the FSI) preparing for a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA). Go sign up.

http://www.badscience.net/2010/07/yeah-well-you-can-prove-anything-with-science/

“Their views on each issue were added together to produce one bumper score on the extent to which they thought science could be informative on all of these questions, and the results were truly frightening. People whose pre-existing stereotypes about homosexuality had been challenged by the scientific evidence presented to them were more inclined to believe that science had nothing to offer, on any question, not just on homosexuality, when compared with people whose views on homosexuality had been reinforced.

When presented with unwelcome scientific evidence, it seems, in a desperate bid to retain some consistency in their world view, people would rather conclude that science in general is broken. This is an interesting finding. But I’m not sure it makes me very happy.”

From Time – Study: Children of Lesbians May Do Better Than Their Peers

The point of this post is not to debate the results of the study – while they are very interesting, the best part by far is the conservative response. I’ll simply quote Survivingtheworld.net who says it best in Lesson 669:

I don’t make these studies up – I just make sure you’ve heard about them.

Of course, science is always open for debate – if you’ve ever been at a scientific presentation, people will routinely ask questions about methods and analysis, and what the conclusions actually mean. In other words, debating science in comparison to other science. So what does the opposing side have to say about this study? Well, let me quote the president of Concerned Women of America:

"You have to be a little suspicious of any study that says children being raised by same-sex couples do better or have superior outcomes to children raised with a mother and father. It just defies common sense and reality."

Ah, yes, common sense. Because nothing has driven society and science forward more than common sense.