Text 16948, 84 rader
Skriven 2008-06-03 21:04:29 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 16913 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: I LOVE chlorine!
========================
Hello Robert,

On Tuesday June 03 2008 19:28, you wrote to me:

 MV>> About a year ago there was this salmonella hype. I do not know who
 MV>> started it but all of a sudden we saw "salmonella free" chicken in
 MV>> the supermarket. It was not a success and it quitly disappeared.

 RB> No wonder. In the first place, there is effectively no such thing as
 RB> "salmonella free" chicken

I know. That is why I put it in quotes.

 RB> diarrhea, which is unpleasant but not fatal. And even that only
 RB> happens when the meat is poorly cooked or the juice from thawing is
 RB> allowed to contact the cooked meat. By the way, that usually happens
 RB> when the cooked chicken is put on the same plate that was used for
 RB> thawing, and has only been cursorily washed off in the sink.

All well known...

 RB> The sterilization treatment some are getting hysterical about in this
 RB> case is merely a precaution,

A precaution against what? Salmonella? You said yourself that there is no such
thing as "salomonella free". as a precaution iot is not effective and so people
will see it as an unneeded addendum.

The logical step is that they avoid it as a precaution....

 RB> Since nobody normally _wants_ to get  sick, even if it's not fatal and
 RB> even if the chance is low, I figure the hype will die down after a
 RB> while.

That depends on what people percieve as the higher risk: to get salmonella
poisoning or get sick from the chlorine.

My guess is that they will rate the latter as the higher risk because it is
less known.

 RB> Only the people who worry about the EMF of cell phones causing cancer
 RB> and wear lead underwear to protect themselves against "earth
 RB> radiation" will continue to worry. But that makes them happy - to each
 RB> his own.

Dont underestimate man's fear for what he does not understand. Salmonella has
bene here for centuries. Chlorine in th e chicken is new...

 MV>> In the late seventees, we had the "Outspan mercury" incident.
 MV>> Outspan is a South African brand of oranges. They were under
 MV>> political pressure because of the apartheid. Although not popular,
 MV>> Outspan had a market position although not very large. The some
 MV>> activists decided to turn up the heat by injecting Outspan oranges
 MV>> in the suoermarket with mercury. The liquid metallic form.

 RB> ;-) Which is not even dangerous... it goes through the system
 RB> unchanged.

You know that, I know that..

 MV>> They thought that would kill Outspan.

 RB> Such people are often not the brightest.

A well know stand up comedian here killed a alcohol free beer brand...

 MV>> But it did not work out that way. Of course there was an initial
 MV>> sharp drop in sales, but when experts explained that liquid
 MV>> mercury is pretty harmless in the digestive tract, the public's
 MV>> sympathy swayed towards Outspan instead of the anti apartheid
 MV>> activists and sales went up!

 RB> Like I say, too much panic and misinformation, too little thought and
 RB> facts. Unfortunately, humans are prone to emotional reactions even in
 RB> cases where they are anything but helpful and reasonable, and nobody
 RB> is really immune.

True, but predicting on which side of the fence the apple will land is not that
easy....

Cheers, Michiel

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