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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Water pseudoscience and quackery</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="chemistry, water, water quackery, pseudoscience"> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Index to water pseudoscience and quackery site; index"> <meta name = "classification" content = "science, chemistry, education"> <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,nofollow"> <META NAME="copyright" CONTENT="Stephen K. Lower"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="index.css" ></link> <base target="_top"> </head> <body> <div id="outerContainer"> <div class="introbox"> <a name="TOP"></a> <img src="scamban-h2o.gif" width="522" height="76" border="0"> <img src="joker.jpg" width="89" height="106" border="0" align="right" />Magnets and "catalysts" for softening water, magnetic laundry balls, waters that are "oxygenated", "clustered", "ionized" or "vitalized" (purporting to improve cellular hydration, remove toxins, and repair DNA), high zeta-potential colloids and vortex-treated waters to raise your energy levels, halt or reverse ageing and prevent cancer all of these wonders and more are being aggressively marketed via the Internet, radio infomercials, seminars, and by various purveyors of new-age nonsense. The hucksters who promote these largely worthless products weave a web of pseudoscientific hype guaranteed to dazzle and confuse the large segment of the public whose limited understanding of science makes them especially vulnerable to this kind of exploitation. The purpose of this site is to examine the credibility of these claims from the standpoint of our present-day understanding of science. The latter, of course, is always evolving and is never complete, but it makes an excellent "B.S. filter" that is almost always reliable. It is hoped that the information presented here will help consumers make more informed decisions before offering up their credit cards to those in the business of flogging pseudoscience. </div> <div id="pageFrame"> <div id="right-col"> AquaQuackery: wellness waters for whatever ails you <a href="ionbunk.html"><img src="waterions.gif" width="70" height="62" border="0" align="right" />"Ionized" and alkaline water </a> Spend thousands of $ for snake-oil on tap. Also, "<a href="phbalance.html">pH-balanced water</a>".   <a href="clusqk.html"><img src="harmonymolecule.gif" width="92" height="92" border="0" align="right" />Water cluster quackery </a> Structure-altered water nostrums and nonsense   <a href="oxyscams.html"><img src="ocanada.jpg" width="80" height="131" border="0" align="right" />Oxygenated waters and worse </a> This "sports beverage" is great if you have gills, but otherwise it's just an expensive burp!   <a href="wonkywater.html"><img src="vortex.gif" width="80" height="112" border="0" align="right" />Wonky-water wellness schemes </a> "Energized" and "magnetized" water, vortexes, vibrations, biophotons— and then there's the really weird stuff! Other water-quackery schemes & scams <a href="coralscams.html">Coral calcium quackery</a> <a href="FootBathBunk.html">Detox Footbath scams </a> <a href="EnergizedWater.html">"Energized" water wackadoo</a> <a href="FlanBunk.html">Flanagan's hydride ion shenanigans</a> <a href="johnellisbunk.html">John Ellis Electron Water Machine </a> <a href="magwatscams.html">"Magnetized" water misinformation</a> <a href="piwaterbunk.html">Pi Water piffle </a> <a href="TWEbunk.html">TWE "Structured Water" nonsense</a> </div> <div id="left-col"> <blockquote> <a href="faq.html">Frequently-asked questions </a> Please click here before you ask me! <a href="gallery.html">The BunkHouse: gallery of water-related pseudoscience</a> Cross-reference of products profiled on this site. <a href="#LINKS">Some helpful links </a> </blockquote> Background: information to help avoid being scammed <a href="../acad/sci/pseudosci.html"><img src="wizard.jpg" width="44" height="71" border="0" align="right" />What is pseudoscience?</a> How to tell the difference from science <a href="../acad/sci/aboutwater.html"><img src="WatDensPlot.gif" width="92" height="88" border="0" align="right" />A gentle introduction to water and its structure</a> Get the straight dope on water before the hucksters get you! <a href="hardwater.html"><img src="tub.gif" width="87" height="73" border="0" align="right" />About hard water </a> A brief description of the nature of water hardness and scale   Dubious water-treatment schemes, mostly <a href="magscams.html"><img src="magnet.gif" width="64" height="73" border="0" align="right" />Magnetic water treatment and related magnetic pseudoscience </a> Also: magnetic laundry balls, fuel-enhancers and similar stuff <a href="catscams.html">"Catalytic" water softening </a> "Precious-metal" catalysts suck electrons out of the water and money out of your wallet <a href="aquacrack.html">Other alternative softening schemes</a> Ranging from the scientifically questionable to the crackpot <a href="../acad/sci/aboutwater.html#BURN">Convert your car to burn water </a> This old stuff never seems to die. Get the facts here! </div> <div id="clearone"></div> <div class="RefBox"> <h3><a name="LINKS" id="LINKS"></a>References: some useful links</h3> <a href="http://blog.everydayscientist.com/?cat=50">Another scientist's</a> musings on water pseudoscience and HHO "free energy". The <a href="http://dmoz.org/Science/Environment/Water_Resources/Drinking_Water/">Drinking Water</a> section of the Open Directory Project contains links to numerous EPA and other informational sites. <a href="http://www.cyber-nook.com/water/index.html">Drinking Water Resources</a> - this site contains a wealth of information and hundreds of links, all nicely organized through a menu covering general concerns, contaminants, risk factors and treatment methods. The author is in the water filter business, but he is science-trained and offers reliable advice. Wilkes University has a good <a href="http://www.water-research.net/helpguide.htm">Online Information Guide</a> covering water quality, drinking water, groundwater, surface water, common water quality problems and water analysis and testing. For a good review of advanced water-treatment technologies, see the article Waterworks in the April 9, 2001 issue of Chemical & Engineering News. (ACS members can access it <a href="http://cen.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/79/i15/html/7915sci1.html">here</a>.) This has a particularly good discussion of large-scale microfiltration and reverse-osmosis methods such as are being used for wastewater treatment in Orange County CA and elsewhere. The University of Arizona Hydrology Dept has a very comprehensive, student-oriented <a href="http://www.hwr.arizona.edu/globe/h2oissues.html">Western Water Resources</a> site which has a lot of links of general interest, including to water-related sites of EPA and USCGS. See also <a href="http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/main_e.htm">Agriculture Canada's site</a> on farm water resources and treatment. Some notes on the historical development of water-treatment processes can be found <a href="http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/early-water-treatment.html">here</a>. This private risk management organization has an extensive list of <a href="http://www.nsf.org/consumer/drinking_water/dw_contaminant_guide.asp">common water contaminants</a> with information on their allowed levels, health effects, and remediation technologies. U.S. residents may wish to see the <a href="http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/contaminants">NYTimes "What's in Your Water" site</a> and check on the data for a particular city or county. <a href="http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/water-eau/well-puits-eng.php">What's in your well?</a> A guide to well water reatment and maintenance from Health Canada. <a href="http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/environ/chlor_e.html">Drinking water chlorination</a> - from the Health Canada site <a href="http://www.healthunit.org/water/infosheet/system.htm">Choosing a water treatment system</a> - a Government of Ontario site Water purifiers: <a href="http://www.chem1.com/CQ/FlanBunk.html">common deceptive tests</a> intended to convince you that your water is polluted Drinking water standards: See the <a href="http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/currentregulations.cfm">US EPA Water Standards site</a> and especially their <a href="http://water.epa.gov/drink/guide/upload/book_waterontap_full.pdf">pdf document</a> that lists specific contaminants and their concentration limits. A <a href="http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/water-eau/sum_guide-res_recom/chemical-chimiques-eng.php">similar table</a> is published by Health Canada. <a href="http://www.sniggle.net/scams.php">Scams and Frauds</a> page from the excellent <a href="http://www.sniggle.net/index.php">CultureJammer's site</a>. Hundreds of links. <a href="http://www.skepdoc.info/">SkepDoc</a> - Retired physician Dr. Harriet Hall writes about medicine, science, and quackery. <a href="https://liesorfiction.blogspot.com/">Dead water, lies or fiction?</a> Blog on various water-quackery scams Multi-level marketing - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing">Wikipedia</a> - <a href="http://www.firstclassmlm.com/">Pro</a> - Con: <a href="http://www.mlmwatch.org/01General/10lies.html">"Ten big lies"</a> , <a href="http://www.mlmwatch.org/">MLM Watch</a> Medical/Health pseudoscience, quackery and fraud: <a href="http://www.quackwatch.org">QuackWatch</a>, <a href="http://www.quackometer.net/">The Quackometer</a> <a href="http://www.nsf.org">NSF International</a> has several useful consumer pages about water treatment: see especially <a href="http://nsf.org/consumer/drinking_water/dw_treatment.asp?program=WaterTre#devices">Home Water Treatment Devices</a>, and <a href="http://www.nsf.org/certified/dwtu/.">listings of products </a>they have certified.<a href="http://www.worldwidescam.com/"> </a>U.S. Federal Trade Commision: <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/sitemap.htm">index page</a> -- <a href="https://www.FTCComplaintAssistant.gov/">File-a-complaint</a> U.S. Federal Drug Administration <a href="http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/">Consumers Page</a> - <a href="http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/dietarysupplements/ucm073200.htm">Dietary Supplement Advertising Rules</a> Residents of Canada can use<a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/frm-eng/GHÉT-7TDNA5"> this form</a> to forward complaints regarding deceptive advertising and sales practices to the Canada Competition Bureau. </div> <div id="footer"> <table width="60%" border="1" align="center" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2"> <tr> <td bordercolor="#CC6600" bgcolor="#CCCC33"><center> last modified: 2017-03-02 </center></td> </tr> </table> <script language="javascript">  </script> <img src="../acad/webtext/VT-images/SFU-N.jpg" width="144" height="104" align="left" /> <table width="80%" class="small" align="center" border="1" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td width="28%">Why do I waste my time on this stuff? Chemistry is my favorite subject, and I hate to see it misused to confuse, mislead or defraud the public. </td> <td width="54%"><a href="http://www.chem1.com/SKL/SKLchem/">Stephen Lower</a><a href="http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/faculty/lower.htm"> </a>is a <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/people/emeritus-retired.html">retired faculty member</a> of the <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry.html">Dept of Chemistry</a>, <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/">Simon Fraser University</a> Burnaby / Vancouver, Canada </td> </tr> </table> <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/3.0/88x31.png" /></a> This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License</a>. </div></div>  <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=3216342; var sc_invisible=0; var sc_security="6c07b41a"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script> <noscript><div class="statcounter"><a title="free hit counters" href="http://statcounter.com/free-hit-counter/" target="_blank"><img class="statcounter" src="http://c.statcounter.com/3216342/0/6c07b41a/0/" alt="free hit counters"></a></div></noscript>  </div> </body> </html>