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Snake Oil, Scam, Con, Flimflam, Swindle
Yes, Virginia, there are still
snake oil salesmen.
Quack, Charlatan, Bunko Artist, Huckster
The Bottom Line:
1) There is absolutely no scientific basis for claims that
the structure or energy of water can be altered in a way
that can enhance health differently than untreated water.
2) There are no studies published in mainstream scientific
or medical journals that conclusively and repeatably
demonstrate enhanced/altered water products improve health
any better than untreated water. Discussions of
specific examples:
alkaline water,
enhanced/altered water, Masaru Emoto's
water crystals.
3) Be skeptical of any unsolicited attempt to sell any water
treatment product or of any "tests" or "demonstrations" that
might be used to convince you of the "need" for a product or
that shows how well
it works. This is true of enhanced/altered water
products and of standard water treatment products. Always check thoroughly
with the Better Business Bureau or perhaps a local science
teacher before buying.
4) The placebo effect is extremely powerful and can give the
illusion that the health claims made by enhanced water
developers and marketers are true - even though exactly the
same results would be observed in a blinded test against untreated
water.
placebo effect
description another good
article |
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A Plea to Science Educators
Please make time in your
curriculums to instruct students on how to evaluate claims made by marketers and
the media!
During most of my education the primary emphasis was to memorize facts rather
than learn how to think critically. It was not until graduate school
that the balance shifted toward critical thinking and by extension how to
evaluate various
marketing claims made in the name of science.
It has been of far greater value for me to learn how science works and
understand how to create and test
hypotheses about the natural universe than
to learn most of the facts I memorized over the years - only to forget after the test.
For example, there have been few times in my career (well, none actually) where
I have had to produce
Avogadro's number, recite the periodic table, list all
the bones in the body, or provide the exact dates of Darwin's voyage or the
discovery of penicillin, from memory.
It is far more important for
students to understand the concepts behind the
facts. Facts that are used rarely can always be looked up - facts
that are used
frequently will be memorized anyway.
Provide the tools that enable the next generation of
consumers to effectively evaluate marketing claims |
Characteristics of Drinking Water Scams:
The primary point to remember
about any fraudulent person or company is that their objective is to
separate you from your money, and they may lie, use trickery or even
invent a problem to do so.
(Alabama
Cooperative Extension System)
 1) Promises made by the
manufacturer or promoter sound too good to be true.
2)
Product claims that relate to alleged health benefits are vague, ill-defined,
and notoriously difficult to measure or validate
3:
Phrases like
"our product:
increases energy; hydrates better; is absorbed
more quickly;
reduces waste buildup; removes toxins from the body;
reverses aging; grants greater youthfulness; prevents
stress; and increases
mobility", all sound good
- who wouldn't want to pay for products that provide
those benefits.
Unfortunately, there are apparently no
regulations or oversight processes
enforced to prevent companies from making general,
unsubstantiated health
claims about a product - as long as the claims do
not include the treatment or
prevention of specific diseases
1.
The placebo effect
complicates the exposure of scams immensely. A
customer's positive belief in and expectation for a
product can produce the
expected health benefit, and the products can appear to work as advertised
even
though plain water (if marketed in the same way) would produce exactly
the same benefits.
3) Theories that explain how the product
works are not based on clear,
proven, or accepted scientific principles. Instead the
product is based on a
"scientific sounding process" that is not recognized by the scientific
community, and there are usually no publications in mainstream scientific
journals. An effective, water treatment process based on a valid scientific
principle would be well tested and widely reported in peer reviewed
science,
medical, or engineering journals.
As of this writing
NO
Treatment Methods that are able to alter the
structure
of pure water so that it has any additional health benefits over
untreated water
have been clearly demonstrated or recognized by the
scientific community.
Scientists are not opposed to studying
new theories,
quite the contrary. However to be
considered as having some validity, new
theories must either fit somewhere in the accepted
scientific framework, or if
they propose completely new physical or chemical
processes the evidence
supporting the new claims must be exceptionally strong
2.
4) Experimental results that support health
benefit
claims have not been
published in reputable, peer-reviewed literature
by the product inventers or
promoters. There may be lots of confirming "evidence" provided in the form
of citations
from obscure "journals" that are impossible to locate or in
published books that
have had no scientific, peer review - and which are often
written by
individuals who have
a financial stake in the product.
5) Most of the supporting "evidence" provided to validate
claims made for the
product consists of testimonials from "satisfied customers".
There is
absolutely no way to determine if actual customers wrote the
testimonials or
whether positive results experienced by real product users were actually
caused by the product. You can be certain that
negative results would not be
published in the promotional material.
6)
Testimonials from celebrities or important-sounding people with degrees are
quoted
to build another layer of "respectfulness" and "legitimacy." For
example:
“R__ G__, MD , world renowned researcher and author of the iconic series of
books
called V__ M__, which have been translated into many languages across
the globe,
is quoted as saying: '…I have been using (R__ Water) for some time and
I find that
it does appear to increase my sense of energy and vitality when I take
it regularly as
an additive to my spring water…' ”
It is often impossible to verify the credentials of
these individuals, and expertise
in one area does not mean they have the credentials to
evaluate physics and
chemistry claims. It is also important to remember that celebrities might be
paid
for their endorsement and advanced degrees can be
purchased for a few
hundred dollars.
7)
Really cool, impressive sounding words are used to describe and explain the
alleged physical principles behind the product - words like,
vitalized, high zeta-
potential, zeta-potential-induced
clustering, aetheric energy, pi-mag, stabilized nascent
oxygen,
paramagnetic water, imploding vortex, noble gas infusions, nano
energizing
frequency, nano resonance technology, di-pole deuterium
sulfate, passive counter-phase
resonance, hydro plasma, biophotons,
stabilized oxygen, plasma-induced electron injection,
bovis energy
scale, negative vibrational memories, microcyn, matrix
enabled particulization,
m-water activation, beotron cell, microcyn,
hexagonal scalarwave structured water, platonic
solid inversion
geometry, electrically
engineered eloptic energized stabilized oxygenated
water, template
induction process, smirnov magnetic resonance effect technology
- the
words slide right off your tongue.
Search on any of these terms on the Internet,
and you can read some really creative
writing - or they may have vanished into
cyber-space as the promoters move onto other products. If you use a search
engine's filter to explore only .edu and .gov sites you will probably not find any
hits - or they
will be for sites that describe scams.
8) Product demonstrators may use the results of sham or misleading
"tests"
and/or fear tactics to create the need for their product.
People want to drink
safe water and have the best health possible for
themselves and their families.
Scammers take advantage of these goals to promote their
products. There are
lots of things that a sales person can add to ordinary, safe tap
water that will
create impressive colors &/or ugly looking precipitates. Be
very suspicious of
any sales person offering free unsolicited water tests - the test
will be designed
to make your water look bad and the product look good. If you do
accept a
water test DO NOT immediately make a purchase based on the results.
Get
all the details and do some research - contact the Better Business
Bureau,
your water department, a local high school or college science teacher, etc. and
get a second or third opinion. Check with
NSF
International to see if a product
is certified to perform as advertised.
water
treatment,
bottled water,
supplements
9) There is often pressure to purchase a product
immediately or a great
opportunity will be lost. The price might go up or you might be
harming your
health or the health of your family by waiting to purchase. This strategy is
most
often used when a sales person is demonstrating a product.
Always wait and
do not purchase on impulse! A legitimate
sales person will understand and
hopefully approve of you doing more research that would
validate their claims.
A scammer, however, will not want you to check the
product claims. If you
do purchase a product that costs over $25 from a
door-to-door sales person
and have second thoughts, you can
cancel an order within three days and
receive a full refund.
10) In Summary: Buyer Beware!
a) Assume that
any marketing claims for any product are for the benefit of the
seller not the
consumer, and make an effort to uncover the truth about the
claims - particularly for
expensive products.
b) Do not purchase based on a sales person's
encouragement to BUY NOW!
Pressure to buy
immediately without checking the claims is always a red
flag and is often a sign
of fraudulent claims.
c) Although there is a tremendous amount of unregulated,
misleading and
fraudulent content on the Internet, there are also
sites that attempt to provide
a balance and expose the scams.
d) While searching the
Internet for information on a product add the words
"scam" or "fraud" to
a
search on the product name.
e) Check for the product on .edu and .org sites
(advanced Google search) - that will
frequently
eliminate hits completely and usually provide more trustworthy
information.
f) Check the company and claims with
the Better Business Bureau and local,
knowledgeable experts.
An obvious problem with some of the scam characteristics listed above is
that it takes a certain amount of scientific knowledge to determine
whether product claims and marketing practices meet many of the scam
characteristics. The average consumer will probably not have the
background to evaluate product claims on the spot - particularly in the
presence of a good sales person who appears to have all the answers. The
best way to avoid falling for a scam is to never purchase immediately
despite the pressure or great deals that will go away if you wait.
Collect the seller's contact information and all the product details you
can then carefully research the company and the claims using the
guidelines above.
1Does
the government help the consumer identify drinking water scams? Unfortunately, not much
- The regulations (usually not enforced in products that do not pose
immediate health risks) and consumer guidelines are discussed below.
The federal government has several departments
that regulate advertising claims and the safety of food and drug
products sold in the United States. The
Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is responsible for ensuring safety and
effectiveness of drugs, biological products, food additives, and medical devices and with
safeguarding the nation's food supply. The
Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) "is the only federal agency with both consumer protection
and competition jurisdiction in broad sectors of the economy."
The
FDA
and some states do regulate bottled water quality so it is as safe as
tap water and the FTC will challenge marketing claims for water
treatment devices that are clearly fraudulent or products which make
misleading and unsubstantiated health claims that a product is able to
cure or prevent a specific disease.
However, the class of products described as
Dietary Supplements are very
loosely regulated by the FDA and FTC.
As long as a company does not promote a Dietary Supplement as a cure or prevention
for a specific disease,
marketers are pretty much free to make any general
"structure/function" claims they choose
without any regulatory consequences or oversight.
The enhanced/altered water products are
intriguing because most are not truly supplements - they are just
plain, ordinary water. Claims are made that the water structure
and/or energy have been altered in some way to enhance health, but if
nothing is actually added, can these products be considered supplements?
The
FTC provides a
site that offers basic information on detecting fraudulent product claims.
"With so many sources of health information at your
fingertips — many of them online — it can be tough to tell fact from
fiction, or useful health products and services from those that don’t
work or aren’t safe. The FTC has created this website to help you find
reliable sources of information on health topics important to you,
whether you’re an older consumer or a family member, caregiver, or
friend."
Another site,FDA 101: Dietary Supplements,
describes supplements and provides some guidelines for consumers.
Perhaps the most telling statement on the page is
"There are limitations to
FDA oversight of claims in dietary supplement labeling. For example, FDA
reviews substantiation for claims as resources permit."
Neither these pages nor the other FDA and FTC pages discussed provide
specific information about specific products, so the responsibility to
research products remains with the consumer.
Specific information from the FTC website on structure/function claims:
In contrast to health claims, "structure/function" claims, within the broader category of "statements of nutritional support," refer to representations about a dietary supplement’s effect on the structure or function of the body for maintenance of good health and nutrition.
Structure/function claims are not subject to FDA pre-authorization. A marketer may make these claims in labeling if it notifies FDA and includes a disclaimer that the claim has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, cure, or prevent disease. DSHEA also requires that structure/function claims in labeling be substantiated and be truthful and not misleading. This requirement is fully consistent with the FTC’s standard that advertising claims be truthful, not misleading and substantiated.
Note: these supplement advertising guidelines have four requirements
1) No health claims are to be made
2) The FDA is notified about marketing claims
3) A disclaimer is added to the label
4) the advertising claims must be truthful, not misleading, and
substantiated
It is obvious that most companies that sell
altered/enhanced water products adhere strictly to requirement #3 and
add disclaimers that the products are not intended to treat, cure, or
prevent disease. It is equally obvious that they completely ignore
requirement #4. Depending on the company and the product, it is
also apparent that, in reference to requirement #1, there is a great
deal of interpretation as to what constitutes a "health claim".
'Miracle' Health Claims: Add a Dose of Skepticism - Federal Trade
Commission
Whether they're looking for a short cut to losing weight or a cure for a serious ailment, consumers may be spending billions of dollars a year on unproven, fraudulently marketed, often useless health-related products, devices and treatments. Why? Because health fraud trades on false hope. It promises quick cures and easy solutions to a variety of problems, from obesity to cancer and AIDS. But consumers who fall for fraudulent "cure-all" products don't find help or better health. Instead, they find themselves cheated out of their money, their time, and maybe even their health.
An overview of
Dietary Supplements
From the Food and Drug Administration website
A product sold as a dietary supplement and promoted on its label or
in labeling* as a treatment, prevention or cure for a specific disease
or condition would be considered an unapproved--and thus illegal--drug.
To maintain the product's status as a dietary supplement, the label and
labeling must be consistent with the provisions in the Dietary
Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.
Q) Do manufacturers or distributors of dietary supplements
have to tell FDA or consumers what evidence they have about their
product's safety or what evidence they have to back up the claims they
are making for them?
A) No, except for rules described above that govern "new dietary
ingredients,there is no provision under any law or regulation that FDA
enforces that requires a firm to disclose to FDA or consumers the
information they have about the safety or purported benefits of their
dietary supplement products. Likewise, there is no prohibition against
them making this information available either to FDA or to their
customers. It is up to each firm to set its own policy on disclosure of
such information. For more information see
Claims That Can Be Made for Conventional Foods and Dietary Supplements.
Q) How can consumers inform
themselves about safety and other issues related to dietary supplements?
A) It is important to be well informed about products before
purchasing them. Because it is often difficult to know what information
is reliable and what is questionable, consumers may first want to
contact the manufacturer about the product they intend to purchase
(see
previous question "Where can I get information about a specific dietary
supplement?"). In addition, to help consumers in their search to be
better informed, FDA is providing the following sites:
Tips For The Savvy Supplement User:
Making Informed Decisions
And Evaluating Information (includes information on how to evaluate
research findings and health information on-line) and
Structure/Function Claims
(This guidance document restates in plain language the legal requirements set forth in a regulation concerning labeling claims for dietary supplements).
So, it is up to each
manufacturer/distributor to set its own policy on disclosure of safety
and benefits and, since it is "often difficult to know what
information is reliable and what is questionable", the consumer is
encouraged to contact the manufacturer/distributor about the product
they wish to purchase. It appears that the FDA and FTC have a
great deal of trust in the integrity of manufacturers and distributors
of dietary supplements and enhanced/altered water products.
To
those who are more skeptical, it seems more like sending the fox to
guard the chicken house. |
2Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof
(Carl Sagan, astronomer and author)
In order for experimental results to be widely accepted as valid
by the scientific community two conditions must generally be met:
a) the experimental results must be repeatable - consistently and by
different research teams (including skeptics) using the published methods.
b) there must be some explanation for the experimental results that
makes sense within the current scientific theoretical framework - or the
experiments that confirm a new, unknown process must be convincing
enough to motivate scientists to discover a theory to explain it.
For any theory that does not fit neatly within the
current theoretical framework, there is considerably more skepticism
on the part of the scientific community and a requirement to provide
even more details of the proposed new theory and the evidence that supports
it.
An experiment that examined the effect of
different levels of CO2 on the growth rate of corn would be
evaluated very differently by other scientists than a study that
claimed, for example, that corn seeds exposed to "enhanced" helium gas later grew
twice as tall and used 1/2 of the amount of CO2 as untreated
seeds.
The first example would simply be an extension of
existing knowledge about how plants use carbon dioxide. The second
(hypothetical) example would be completely
unexpected. Helium is believed to be an inert gas that could not
possibly cause the reported effect. There would be no previous
experiments or existing theory to explain how helium might be "enhanced"
to create the
effect. The study authors would need to provide "Extraordinary
Proof" to convince the scientific community that their "Extraordinary
Claim" was even worthy of consideration. Then other scientists
would use the published methods to duplicate the results and develop a
theory to explain how helium could produce the results before the claim
would be fully accepted.
Those who develop alternative water products
usually make extraordinary claims about the processes used to create
their products but do not provide any explanation or proof about how the
process might work that stands up to
scientific examination. An excellent example of a real product for
which "Extraordinary Claims" are made is
Oxygenated Water - claimed to produce better hydration and
greater energy than regular, un-oxygenated water. There is not one
shred of scientific evidence to justify that claim - nothing that is
known about the digestive and circulatory systems supports the claim
that swallowing some oxygen would increase the oxygen levels of the
blood. Proof of the claims is not provided because it can't be -
and proof does not need to be provided, since people continue to
purchase the product based only on effective marketing practices.
3Those
who develop and market alternative water products face another
scientific challenge
- How do they prove their products are effective?
Claims like those mentioned above:
"increases energy; hydrates better; is absorbed more quickly;
reduces waste buildup; removes toxins from the body; reverses aging; grants greater youthfulness; prevents
stress; and increases mobility" are typically undefined - the
consumer
There are two main issues associated with
proving that a product is effective:
a) Exact, measurable criteria must be
described to assess the
effectiveness of a product.
What measurements are used, for example, to validate a
claim that a bottle of clustered
water hydrated a person better than drinking a glass
of tap water or that a person feels more
energetic?
b) How does one establish whether any effects (positive or negative) that might be noticed after
using a product were actually caused by that product?
There are many possible reasons
people experience some effect from a product including the
fact it actually works, pure
chance, and the
placebo effect
(another good
article).
An experimenter's expectations and/or bias can
also influence how a study is set up and conducted in addition to how
the results are collected and analyzed..
Legitimate scientific experiments are carefully
designed to reduce the effect of the placebo effect, chance, and
experimenter bias. In experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of a
product, that usually means designing a blinded or double blinded study
where the subjects do not know whether they are taking the experimental
product or the placebo (blinded), or where neither the experimenters nor
the subjects know which group is taking the experimental product or
placebo (double blind).
The review process for papers that are submitted
for publication in mainstream journals are reviewed by other scientists
in the field. Part of the review process ensures that the study
was designed and conducted to minimize the placebo effect and
experimenter bias..
So far, "research" results mentioned on
altered/enhanced water product promotional materials do not
meet the standards for publication in mainstream medical and scientific
journals. Mostly, though, the developers, manufacturers, and
marketers of these products do not bother with science - relying instead
on anecdotal evidence -
testimonials from others who report benefits from using the product.
Since people continue to purchase the products in
the absence of acceptable scientific proof, and since it is unlikely
valid scientific proof could be provided anyway, why bother.
'Miracle' Health Claims: Add a Dose of Skepticism - Federal Trade
Commission
Online Health Information - USDA National Agricultural Library
Water pseudoscience and quackery
- {by far the most comprehensive anti water scam site on the web.
Dr. Stephen Lower, retired chemistry professor, examines water-related
scams of all flavors and provides detailed analyses of why dozens of
specific products don', and can't, work as advertised - RJ}
"Magnets and 'catalysts'
for softening water, magnetic laundry balls, waters that are
"oxygenated", "clustered", 'unclustered' 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 remove geopathic stress— 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."
Drinking water and water treatment scams
- Alabama Cooperative Extension Services (PDF)
Drinking water scams - Alabama Cooperative Extension Services
(PowerPoint)
These articles are designed to educate the
consumer about the many variations of scams, especially Internet-based
scams, dealing with drinking water and water treatment. The articles
provide advice on how to recognize potential scams and how to deal with
them. They also have links to additional web-based information on
specific types of scams, homeopathy and pseudoscience.
Magnetic
Water and Fuel Treatment: Myth, Magic, or Mainstream Science? -
Magnetic treatment has been claimed to soften water and improve the
combustibility of fuels. A literature review reveals that these claims
are not well supported by data.
Snake Oil: A Guide for Connoisseurs -
Actually,
real snake oil was prized for its reputed medicinal properties. However,
those were modest compared to the claims of later cure-alls sold under
the name "snake oil." Here is an attempt to trace the evolution of both
the product and its labeling
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Drinking Water
