Dear Doctor Column, March 27, 2006

Spotting Health-related E-mail Hoaxes

Question:

A friend just sent me an e-mail warning that many popular lipsticks, including a brand I use, contain dangerous amounts of lead that can cause cancer. This sounds like one of those fake e-mails to me. Is there an easy way to spot these Internet hoaxes?

Answer:

Your suspicions are correct; Internet tricksters have circulated e-mails falsely claiming a number of popular lipsticks contain dangerous amounts of lead since 2003. In response, the American Cancer Society posted a notice on their site with the facts: the Food and Drug Administration regulates the lead content of coloring agents used in lipstick and permitted levels are not a health problem. To read their explanation go to: www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_6_1x_Lipstick_and_Lead.asp?sitearea=MED.

 This is just one of many health-related deceptions spread via the Internet, and with April Fool’s day just around the corner — a time when the number of e-mail hoaxes increases, according to several hoax-busting sites — it’s a good time to review some basic steps for spotting fake information.

First, here’s a sampling of a few of the false medical rumors recently making the rounds on the Internet:

• Shipments of Costa Rican bananas are infected with a flesh-eating bacteria that causes necrotizing fascitis.
• Antiperspirant causes breast cancer.
• A widely used shampoo ingredient causes cancer.
• Sunscreens cause blindness.
• Growth hormones injected into chicken wings cause ovarian cysts.
• Teenagers have died from sucking on helium-filled balloons.
• Needles used by HIV-infected people are being left on movie theater seats, gas pump handles, and a number of other locations. (We debunked this particular rumor in previous Dear Doctors column, online at: www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=67451&site=734&return=18687.)

When presented together, these claims are pretty easy to identify as false. But confusion arises when the original source appears credible — the flesh-eating banana e-mail often cites the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) as its source — or the e-mail contains technical language that mixes scientific fact with fiction, which can make even most outrageous claims sound plausible.

According to Hoaxbusters (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/), a site sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Cyber Security, an urgent appeal to “forward the e-mail to everyone you know,” or some similar request, should instantly raise a red flag of suspicion. Hoaxbusters notes “no real warning message from a credible source will tell you to send this to everyone you know.” It’s also prudent to check the e-mail for links to a trustworthy source, such as a scientific journal article or university or government Web site, for more background information. These links are usually absent from hoax e-mails, making it impossible to track the original source of the claim or warning.

Perhaps the easiest way to vet an e-mail hoax is to visit some of the many Internet hoax evaluation sites. These range from the government-run sites such as CDC’s, online at www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm, and the Department of Energy’s Hoaxbuster site discussed above, to numerous independent sites including www.truthorfiction.com and www.snopes.com. It’s also a good idea to verify the credentials of non-government sites. To help establish the integrity of independent sites, a recent article in the scientific journal Pediatric Nursing advised checking for:

• Names and links to site authors or sponsors
• An “about us” or “who we are” tab that provides essential information about the site
• Affiliations with credible businesses, educational organizations, or other established groups
• Updated information — the best sites update their information regularly as internet hoaxes tend to evolve, periodically adding new information to draw in unsuspecting readers
• References used for debunking hoaxes
• Source: Pediatr Nurs. 2005;31(6):503-507.

Another quick strategy to try is simply plugging in keywords of the suspect e-mail into a major Internet search engine. When you put in the words “lead in lipstick” into Google’s search box, for example, the first three pages of results are all links to sites that debunk the rumor.

 So, if you receive an e-mail that sounds a bit strange or asks you to inform all your friends that a commonly used product causes a disease or dangerous side effect, do a little investigating before you panic and toss your favorite lipstick (or bananas or antiperspirant) or forward it to friends and family.