Ten Urban Myths... Busted!

#10 - Kid dies after eating Pop Rocks candy and soda pop.
The Myth: according to the myth, you shouldn't drink soda or carbonated soft drinks after eating Pop Rocks - some people would say, in fact, you had to wait up to three hours so you'd complete digestion before drinking soda. Why? Because "some kid" once ate six bags of the stuff, followed by six cans of Pepsi, and the ingestion of so much carbon dioxide caused his stomach to explode. There are many variations of the myth, including one where the Pop Rocks are replaced with Mentos and the soda's place is taken by Coke.

The Origin: apparently, none. There are cases of people who sued the company responsible for Pop Rocks because their kids had a tummy ache after consuming the candy, but after much lurking about, I could not find any evidence of exploding children. Since Pop Rocks do their trademark "popping" through carbonation, I can see how this probably began: someone did the maths. Carbonation from the candy plus carbonation from the soda would result in an air-filled stomach, which could lead to a less pleasant "popping".

The Busting: as previously stated, there is absolutely no evidence of exploding children. While some kids seem to have felt sick after eating an enormous quantity of Pop Rocks, some kids also feel a little sick after eating an enormous quantity of anything else. Besides, let's be reasonable here. Pop Rocks and its copycats are designed so that they pop and eventually disappear on your tongue, very little of it actually reaching your stomach. And we all know what the direct consequence of drinking carbonated drinks is: gas. You're either going to burp it out, or fart it out. In any case, chances of your gut bursting because of too much carbon are slim if any.

#09 - LSD-laced rub-on tattoos.
The Myth: rub-on or lick-and-stick tattoos for kids, a usual prize on several brands of snack, are actually laced with LSD in an attempt to get kids addicted to the drug as soon as possible.

The Origin: this is an old one - it started during the 70's, of course, when LSD was the shit. Back then, the drug was manufactured by lacing blotted paper sheets with drops of LSD - you chewed on the paper or tab, and the drug would get in your system. The problem was, these sheets of paper were printed with cartoon characters before they were sold. At some point, someone assumed that the same paper was used to manufacture lick-and-stick kiddie tattoos, and the panic began.

The Busting: let us, once again, think logically. You are a drug dealer looking to expand your customer list. Who's your potential new customer? Surely not kids who still have chocolate bread and chips as a snack, and who still think having a rub-on tattoo on their arm is cool... you see, kids back then were not the same as kids today. They didn't carry ATM cards, most of them received a small allowance if any, and surely didn't have the financial means to maintain an LSD addiction. Even if it's a rub-on tattoo with LSD addiction. And, once again, not one of these rub-on tattoos was ever found to contain any material hazardous to children, adults or animals. The whole thing seems to be a fad, like platform shoes: you hear about it from time to time, but every single time you do, it's bullshit.

#08 - Kidney theft.
The Myth: there are so many variations of this one out there, it's hard to keep track. Sometimes it's a guy who meets a girl in a bar, she drugs his drink, and later on he wakes up in a tub filled with ice. Sometimes, it's a guy traveling cross-country who gets strapped to his hotel bed by strangers and then drugged for surgery. Sometimes it's people getting lured somewhere with promises of employment or free medical exams, and walk out of there one kidney short of a full person. Whatever the version is, the story always ends up the same way: the victim manages to get help, either by calling emergency or dragging themselves to a hospital, and once they are examined, they discover one of their kidneys is missing. The doctors usually inform them that their kidney is probably for sale at the Black Market.

The Origin: the only origin I could find for this was a 1991 episode of Law and Order. From time to time, you hear news about people who sell their kidneys or corneas when they're stranded for cash, most of which come from the East: China had a reputation of running a regular organ trafficking mob (they do, in fact, harvest organs for transplant from death row inmates), Turkey as well, and by the time you get to India, you even find stories of people selling one of their lungs! Of course the next logical step in this is that if organs can be sold like possessions, they can also be stolen...

The Busting: again - no evidence of such. There was never anyone found in a tub of ice, there are no records of anyone going to the hospital because they were missing a kidney, no people ever died due to organ theft. Nothing. In fact, the National Kidney Foundation of the USA got so tired of these rumors, they have urged anyone who was ever mugged for a kidney to come forth. Until now, not a single person. In 2008, several people in India were arrested for alleged organ theft. Upon verification, the original call was made by someone who still had both kidneys. So yeah, it's pretty much bullshit.

#07 - Perfume samples that can get you robbed.
The Myth: be it in a parking lot or out on the street, someone will approach you saying they sell branded name perfumes very cheap, and promptly offer you a sample for you to sniff. After which you fall unconscious because the perfume was actually ether. Afterwards, you are robbed / raped / kidnapped. I got an e-mail urging me to be careful about this not a week ago.

The Origin: unfortunately, this one can be traced back to a real life event. A woman in Alabama claimed she had been robbed out of 800 dollars like this. Someone gave her a perfume sample to sniff, and she came to half an hour later. Her story was sketchy at best, since part of the money wasn't hers, but her employer's. It should also be kept in mind, several perfume companies hire men, usually in pairs, to sell perfume door-to-door or out on the street.

The Busting: the original case was blown out of proportion. Medical exams on the allegedly attacked woman found jack squat... and let me repeat, yet again, something I have been telling everyone for the past years: Hollywood lies. In movies, all it takes is a couple of whiffs of ether to send your leading cast unconscious, but that's not how ether works. Ether is highly volatile, evaporates easily, and a couple of whiffs of it are not enough to get someone knocked out. There is hardly a substance powerful enough to knock someone out just by sniffing it. Several people have filed reports of having been "almost robbed" after two men approached them asking about perfume... this meaning, several women were approached by perfume salesmen after reading the e-mail, and panicked. Other versions of this perfume scare have been circling around, some claiming it is poison, a virus - all rumors. No evidence backs any of this up. So chill out a bit. Salesmen and Jehovah witnesses can be annoying, but not necessarily deadly.

#06 - Go in with popcorn, come out with AIDS.
The Myth: there is a movie-going psycho out there leaving HIV-infected needles in theater chair cushions everywhere. Stop going to the movies. (steal everything from the Web and watch in the comfort of your own home!)

The Origin: there are known cases of people sitting down on theater chairs and ending up finding something unpleasant. Used condoms seem to be usual, as well as pins and needles. But upon examination, none of these people evidenced symptoms of HIV. Not right after the incident, not until now. The "innocent bystander gets AIDS" legends have been around since the disease showed up. People have been scared of needles in pay phone slots, night club chairs, toilet seats and pieces of candy handed out during Halloween.

The Busting: no evidence to support any incarnation of the tale. People have been pricked by objects left in theater chairs, yes - but none of them got HIV from it. Several complaints were filed, theaters were sued, but no HIV in sight. It doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful, but don't immediately stop going out to have fun because someone might have left an HIV contaminated needle on your seat.

#05 - Pissed Corona.
The Myth: Mexican beer Corona contains urine from brewery workers. That's how they get the lightness, foamy top and trademark color.

The Origin: the slur began in 1987. Back then, two beers were running for favorite in the USA: Heineken and Corona. Guess who started the rumor? A Heineken distributor, seeing its sales become jeopardized by Corona's popularity, urged grocers to pull the product from their shelves on grounds the beer was tainted.

The Busting: it is a typical bar insult - your beer tastes like piss (although I would very much like to know how these people can tell what piss tastes like). The fact is that quality control done over the years ensured we're not drinking piss from Corona or any other beer, and that the aforementioned Heineken distributor was sued heavily for starting the below the belt campaign against its best contestant. Heineken lowered its head and paid a very agreeable sum in damage counts without contesting anything. So rest assured, pop a slice of lime in the bottle and enjoy your beer.

#04 - Taiwanese special: fetusburger.
The Myth: people were both fascinated and disgusted by several pictures of a Taiwanese girl or man buying, cooking and eating a human fetus. There go your chances of convincing your significant other to try that Taiwanese restaurant around the corner.

The Origin: the Internet (what else...?).

The Busting: as it turns out, Taiwanese view cannibalism in the same light as the rest of the world: ewww! Like most people, Scotland Yard and the FBI took the pictures seriously and decided to look into it. As it turns out, the pictures were part of a conceptual piece called Eating People made by Chinese artist Zhu Yu, and came to light at a Shangai arts festival in 2000. The "baby" was made from a duck carcass and doll parts.

#03 - Hell is discovered by Siberian expedition.
The Myth: it's been out in the Internet for years, and if you've been around for a while, you probably not only read about it, but also heard the audio clip that comes along with it. It seems there were a few scientists drilling ground in Siberia, and drilled so deep they eventually found Hell! They found this so astonishing they decided to lower a microphone down to the bottom, and the recording that came back featured the screams of the damned.

The Origin: it all began in 1984, with the drilling of an experimental well at the Kola peninsula, Russia. They reached about 12 km into the ground and encountered rare rock formations, flows of gas and water and temperatures up to 180º (whereas the "Hell found!" scare mentions temperatures of up to 2000º - holy shit!) Sure, they found stuff down there that was of scientific interest, but Hell it wasn't. The audio clip came later on, only crow knows from where, and was not recorded by the original crew in charge of the digging.

The Busting: you all know how these stories are spread. Someone hears something, and then tell it to someone else, and add a little more detail until the tale you get has nothing whatsoever to do with the original one. The discovery got into the hands of a Christian broadcasting station, and then into the hands of a Finnish schoolteacher, getting featured afterwards in a religious Finnish publication and finally reaching the USA where it suffered a little more embellishment. When you finally heard about it, it had gone through several languages and different stages of biased views. And the clip? Well, find yourself one of those older cassette recorders (the kind that adds that buzzing sound to any recording) and you can do one yourself, at 2 in the morning of a Saturday in any busy bar near you.

#02 - Carrots make your eyes better.
The Myth: remember when your parents convinced you to eat your carrots on grounds that if you did, you would never need to wear glasses?

The Origin: well, there is something to the myth. Carrots contain beta-carotene, which may reduce the risks of cataract and general eye degeneration. Of course, none of us has a beta-carotene intake high enough to assure we'll never have eye problems. The actual myth started in WWII, when the British air ministry spread the word that a diet of carrots helped pilots spot Nazi bombers attacking at night. The lie was made up to cover for what really was helping British pilots: the Airborne Interception Radar, a then recently developed system.

The Busting: yet another scheme to get you to eat your veggies, I'm afraid. While a deficiency of Vitamin A (which carrots have) may cause the inability to see well in poor light, and the condition is usually treated by adding carrots or another source of Vitamin A to the patient's diet, there is absolutely no proof that eating carrots improves your eyesight. In fact, there are side effects to eating carrots 24/7: not only can it cause carotenemia (a condition that makes your skin yellow or orange, made popular by being featured in an episode of House, MD) but Vitamin A, like most things, is toxic in large dosage.

#01 - Microwaving food in plastic containers causes cancer.
The Myth: everyone is afraid of the big C, and some research shows that microwaving food in plastic containers releases cancer-causing agents into your food. The microwave-made containers sales go up, people start to like glass dishes again, and Tupperware is fucked.

The Origin: Internet! Actually, from what I've been reading on this subject, people will believe anything a man in a lab coat who calls himself "doctor" tells them. So when one of them decided to go on live USA television to warn people that they might get cancer from their Tupperware, they believe it. It's as simple as that. After all, nobody would bear the "doctor" title falsely, and a doctor wouldn't trick us, isn't that so?

The Busting: first and foremost, people believed this because it is possible: when you heat something up, it releases chemicals. And there is a possibility you consume a lot of chemicals daily in this way, not just from food, but also from the brand new shirt you wore straight from the store, from the toothpick you placed in your mouth and even the sanitary pads women wear. All of these release chemicals when heated up by external source or body temperature - but they are not harmful up first or in the long run! Most plastic containers nowadays are all microwave-ready, plastic water bottles don't contain dioxins, and all utensils and containers meant for cooking undergo a process of control to ensure nobody will die from heating up their frozen lasagna in Tupperware. So unless you own Tupperware from the early 70's, you're in the clear. And if you do, you shouldn't place it in the microwave anyway. Not because of cancer, but for the same reason you shouldn't place them in any oven. It might melt.