The other day as I was browsing through Facebook, I came across a page promoting healthy eating and exercise habits. I skimmed the site and I came across something odd — a link to a high school science fair project claiming microwaved food and water are harmful.
It showed a picture of two plants: one healthy and robust, the other sickly and dying. Supposedly, the healthy plant had been watered using boiled water and the sickly plant had been watered using microwaved water. The claim was that microwaving the water changed the structure of the DNA molecules so that the plant couldn’t absorb it and thus, microwaves are dangerous.
I didn’t buy it. First of all, microwaves, just like any other way of heating up food, make the atoms vibrate faster — which is a natural phenomenon known as “heat”— but they do not change the bonds. And not only did this site say that microwaving changes the molecules — they said specifically that it changes the DNA. Water doesn’t have DNA.
Second of all, this was one science fair project, not a peer-reviewed study. Perhaps something was wrong with the seeds of the sick plant, or perhaps the variables weren’t all accounted for. And third of all, whoever did the project only saw the plant. They did not directly observe the water molecules themselves. But those were a mild nuisances — after all, it was only a science fair project.
What really got to me was how seriously people took it. People commented on the article claiming that they’d never use a microwave again and vowing to spread the word about the dangers of microwaves, all because of a high school science project.
A number of people are too quick to jump to conclusions from unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence. Sometimes this is harmless. For example, there is no scientific evidence that zodiac signs can tell anything about personalities. Yet many people believe in astrology.
They may take a few extra seconds to read their horoscope in the morning paper, but their belief in astrology doesn’t affect their life or cause anybody else harm. Other times, people endorsing pseudoscientific claims can cause harm or slow actual scientific progress.
Aliso Viejo, a city in California, almost banned foam cups in 2004 — not because Styrofoam itself is a possible carcinogen, but because dihydrogen monoxide is used in its production. DHMO is dangerous if inhaled. It has also been found in meth labs and the tumors of cancer patients.  Overconsumption can cause electrolyte imbalance and cerebral edema.
DHMO is the chemical name for water.
This is an example of how facts can be distorted to make a mountain out of a molehill. Of course it’s dangerous to inhale water in its liquid form. And since water is found everywhere in the body, of course it’s found in tumors.
And although it’s necessary for staying alive, an extreme overload of it can still be harmful (although it’s very difficult to overdose on water unless you actively try). Without that context, this chemical sounds incredibly dangerous, while in reality, it’s one of the least toxic substances around.
If even water can be made to sound deadly, anything can be twisted with the right rhetoric. For example, microwaves. There are other topics that have been blown out of proportion that I could mention, such as  genetically modified organisms and fluoridated water, but that would require two new opinion columns.
The bottom line is, facts are often skewed. Critical thinking should be valued from an early age. The public should be able to read an article and evaluate the claims rather than jumping on the first scary fact they see. Hint: If it refers to water having DNA, it’s probably bunk.