Thoraiya DyerHoax Emails, Dust-Off and Geoff Robins
May 18th 2008 23:35
If the topic of this blog is the insidious, poisonous nature of misinformation in the media and on the internet, then a post on hoax emails would certainly not be out of place.
Dear friends and family are often naive forwarders of these electronic dung-piles.
While I love their good natures and willingness to help people in distress, I wish they would check with hoax-slayer.com ( www.hoax-slayer.com ) before putting their names to a petition to save a sick child that doesn’t exist, or advising all their loved ones that listening to your mobile phone with your right ear sends death rays into your brain and always put the phone to your left ear if you don’t want to get cancer (aarrggghhh!).
Recently, I was sent one entitled “Australian Police Officer’s Story.”
It’s a father’s lament for a child who died from sniffing a can of computer cleaner called “Dust-Off”.
In the story, the father is a police officer who is very strict on drugs, but it never occurs to him to police his home against aerosol abuse. He finds his son dead after deliberately inhaling “Dust-Off”, and wants to spread his message as far and wide as he can in the interests of preventing any further deaths.
At the bottom of the email, there is an email address, phone fax and address for Constable Geoff Robins at the Crime Prevention Unit, Queensland Police Service.
Dust Off is produced in the USA by Falcon Safety ( Really Long Link ), “the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of compressed-gas products, including the Original computer-cleaning duster from Dust-Off®”
Cans of Dust-Off are labelled, “A cleaning duster is a serious product. Inhalant abuse is illegal and can cause permanent injury or be fatal. Please use our product responsibly.”
Falcon Safety mentions the dangers of huffing inhalants on its front page, and has an easily accessible article containing the following:
“As a leading manufacturer of one of the world's most versatile aerosol products, Falcon recognizes that among the issues surrounding aerosol product distribution and usage is that of inhalant abuse or "huffing". It is imperative that consumers of aerosol products, parents and children all understand the seriousness of this practice…we ask that you take a brief moment to review a Public Safety Announcement from Falcon Safety Products President and CEO Phil Lapin.”
And then there’s some little videos to watch.
So, it’s totally true that you can kill yourself with a can of Dust Off.
But, curiously, we find that Dust Off is not yet available in Australia. Filmtools, an electrical, lighting and sound supplies company that supplies Falcon Safety products, has started a six month operating trial in Australia and New Zealand only as recently as 2008.
How did the son of an Australian Police Officer get hold of the product in February 2005, as the email claims?
And why is the guy called Jeff in the beginning of the story but Geoff in the contact details at the end?
The answer is, this is an American story. Jeff Williams, a policeman in Cleveland, Ohio, is the true author.
This unfortunate incident really did happen in 2005, but by changing it to try and give it a more “local” feel, the circulators of this story have only succeeded in making me want to cram two cans of Dust Off up their nostrils.
The real Geoff Robins is a Queensland Veterinarian. There’s also a Geoff Robins employed as a Transport Manager in Townsville. He’s not a Policeman. This email might have started off true, but now it’s a useless, filthy mutation polluting my inbox.
And frankly, if you’re too stupid to realise that deliberately inhaling the contents of an aerosol can labelled "can be fatal to inhale" is dangerous, no amount of warning emails is going to help you. You could get a warning email every five minutes, but perhaps someone would neglect to send you a friendly reminder not to jump off buildings. Then what would you do, without warning emails to guide you to safety?
SPLAT.
So, please, don’t be a Hoax Email Disease Carrier. If in doubt, check before you forward. If not, don’t be offended when I send a pissed-off reply. It’s not really you that I want to Dust Off. It’s the authors. Or, in this case, the losers who falsely changed it into an "Australian Policeman's Story."
Dear friends and family are often naive forwarders of these electronic dung-piles.
While I love their good natures and willingness to help people in distress, I wish they would check with hoax-slayer.com ( www.hoax-slayer.com ) before putting their names to a petition to save a sick child that doesn’t exist, or advising all their loved ones that listening to your mobile phone with your right ear sends death rays into your brain and always put the phone to your left ear if you don’t want to get cancer (aarrggghhh!).
Recently, I was sent one entitled “Australian Police Officer’s Story.”
It’s a father’s lament for a child who died from sniffing a can of computer cleaner called “Dust-Off”.
In the story, the father is a police officer who is very strict on drugs, but it never occurs to him to police his home against aerosol abuse. He finds his son dead after deliberately inhaling “Dust-Off”, and wants to spread his message as far and wide as he can in the interests of preventing any further deaths.
At the bottom of the email, there is an email address, phone fax and address for Constable Geoff Robins at the Crime Prevention Unit, Queensland Police Service.
Dust Off is produced in the USA by Falcon Safety ( Really Long Link ), “the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of compressed-gas products, including the Original computer-cleaning duster from Dust-Off®”
Cans of Dust-Off are labelled, “A cleaning duster is a serious product. Inhalant abuse is illegal and can cause permanent injury or be fatal. Please use our product responsibly.”
Falcon Safety mentions the dangers of huffing inhalants on its front page, and has an easily accessible article containing the following:
“As a leading manufacturer of one of the world's most versatile aerosol products, Falcon recognizes that among the issues surrounding aerosol product distribution and usage is that of inhalant abuse or "huffing". It is imperative that consumers of aerosol products, parents and children all understand the seriousness of this practice…we ask that you take a brief moment to review a Public Safety Announcement from Falcon Safety Products President and CEO Phil Lapin.”
And then there’s some little videos to watch.
So, it’s totally true that you can kill yourself with a can of Dust Off.
But, curiously, we find that Dust Off is not yet available in Australia. Filmtools, an electrical, lighting and sound supplies company that supplies Falcon Safety products, has started a six month operating trial in Australia and New Zealand only as recently as 2008.
How did the son of an Australian Police Officer get hold of the product in February 2005, as the email claims?
And why is the guy called Jeff in the beginning of the story but Geoff in the contact details at the end?
The answer is, this is an American story. Jeff Williams, a policeman in Cleveland, Ohio, is the true author.
This unfortunate incident really did happen in 2005, but by changing it to try and give it a more “local” feel, the circulators of this story have only succeeded in making me want to cram two cans of Dust Off up their nostrils.
The real Geoff Robins is a Queensland Veterinarian. There’s also a Geoff Robins employed as a Transport Manager in Townsville. He’s not a Policeman. This email might have started off true, but now it’s a useless, filthy mutation polluting my inbox.
And frankly, if you’re too stupid to realise that deliberately inhaling the contents of an aerosol can labelled "can be fatal to inhale" is dangerous, no amount of warning emails is going to help you. You could get a warning email every five minutes, but perhaps someone would neglect to send you a friendly reminder not to jump off buildings. Then what would you do, without warning emails to guide you to safety?
SPLAT.
So, please, don’t be a Hoax Email Disease Carrier. If in doubt, check before you forward. If not, don’t be offended when I send a pissed-off reply. It’s not really you that I want to Dust Off. It’s the authors. Or, in this case, the losers who falsely changed it into an "Australian Policeman's Story."
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Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World