03.15c The Poor Science Education of City Officials; The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Clayton Cramer's "Why Don't I Think Much of Democracy?" quotes a story from the Sacramento Bee:

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (AP) - City officials were so concerned about the potentially dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they considered banning foam cups after they learned the chemical was used in their production.

Then they learned that dihydrogen monoxide - H2O for short - is the scientific term for water.

"It's embarrassing," said City Manager David J. Norman. "We had a paralegal who did bad research."

The paralegal apparently fell victim to one of the many official looking Web sites that have been put up by pranksters to describe dihydrogen monoxide as "an odorless, tasteless chemical" that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled.
The paralegal did bad research? Was there no one on the city council or their staff who had taken freshman (or even high school) chemistry? What does this say about the general level of knowledge of the people that run Aliso Viejo government?

I can use this in my regulation class as an example of government failure. It's easy to pass over nonsense without an adversarial process.

[in full at 04.03.15c.htm . Erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]

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