Monday, October 15, 2007

Legend?

The NZ Herald reports a story about how a consumer rights group has found that many popular lipstick brands contain dangerous amounts of lead.

This may have been somewhat alarming, except that just days earlier, I had received an email from a well-meaning, but (apparently) gullible friend:

This is truly good to know. Be sure to pass this info on. Your lipsticks might cause you health problem. Brands don't mean everything...Lead is a chemical which causes cancer.

The Brands which contain Lead are:
1. Christian Dior
2. LANCÔME
3. CLINIQUE
4. Y.S.L
5. ESTEE LAUDER
6. SHISEIDO
7. RED EARTH (Lip Gloss)
8. CHANEL (Lip Conditioner)
9. Market America-Motives lipstick

The higher the lead content, the greater the chance of causing Cancer. After doing a test on lipsticks, it was found that the Y.S.L. lipstick contained the most amount of lead. Watch out for those lipsticks which are supposed to stay longer. If your Lipstick stays longer, it is because of the
higher content of lead. Here is the test you can do yourself:

1. Put some lipstick on your hand,
2. Use a 24k-14k Gold ring to scratch on the lipstick.
3. If the lipstick color changes to black then you know the lipstick contains lead.

Please send this information to all your girl friends.


Poohs! I thought. I don't care if my lips atrophy and fall off, I shall not be parted from my YSL lipstick. In any case, I am absurdly cynical by nature – my first instinct is always disbelief, so with a few seconds of effort, found that the lead claims were somewhat of an urban legend, and the email had been whizzing malignantly around the world since about 2003.

But what of the current claims? Cancer research UK thinks it sounds like utter bunkum. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), no doubt bored with testing lipstick everytime the hoax email springs back to life, states that "Similar past claims have not been confirmed," but in a sentence burdened with a heavy sigh, says that "it would look into claims from [the] advocacy group."

Is the internet making people more informed, or stupider? It's so hard to tell.

Incidentally, another friend sent me one of those chain-email thingys. You know the sort, I am sure... 'send this on to six people within the next ten minutes or something really horrid will happen to you' sort of thing. I hate these emails - of course I never forward them, except to my 'deleted items' folder, where they belong.

In future, any friend who sends me emails of such unsubstantiated rot will get a YSL lipstick for Christmas. I hope their lips fall off.

9 comments:

Evad Rehtona said...

So the Herald is perpetrating a hoax urban legend.

Next they will be calling for dihydrogen monoxide to be banned.

Evad Rehtona said...

Is the internet making people more informed, or stupider? It's so hard to tell.

Not hard at all.

Even though I saw September 11 happen live, many people I know, and doubtless millions more I don't, believe it was perpetrated by Dubya himself, allegedly by his brother planting explosives in the twin towers and firing a cruise missile at the Pentagon.

Even though I am (just) old enought to have seen the moon landings live on television, opinion polls suggest most people believe they were a hoax, too.

Sigh.

miss_seph said...

In future, any friend who sends me emails of such unsubstantiated rot will get a YSL lipstick for Christmas.

So, what's your email address then? :)

Mrs Smith said...

Dihydrogen monoxide ought to be banned. In its frozen form, it dilutes drinks. Yuck.

Sad times when it easier to believe the moon landings an elaborate hoax, rather than a triumph of human endeavour.

Miss Seph - none for you. You are getting married, and your wedding photos won't look half so good if your lips have withered away.

Oswald Bastable said...

If I were a single man, I would risk your lips!

Leaden or otherwise!

Anonymous said...

'Is the internet making people more informed, or stupider? It's so hard to tell.'

Exactly. I recall (and I am going to get these details wrong here) gtting an email about how in the carpark of a major supermarket punters were being offered cheap perfume - but that the cheap perfume was actually ether. I emailed my sister, who does PR for said supermarket chain - and she likened the internet to a magician - it has the power to turn normal people into gullible fools. Turned out this story was a complete load of tosh, an ancient hoax that orginated in the States. A bit like all those old ghost stories really, there was this couple that went into a gas station..........

PM of NZ said...

"I am absurdly cynical by nature – my first instinct is always disbelief, so with a few seconds of effort, found that the lead claims were somewhat of an urban legend..."

So you tried the test and it did not work? I would be putting Mr Smith on the spot forthwith. Like, where did he purchase your gold ring and of what quality is it?

Mrs Smith said...

Say PM, wanna trade a snog for a tax-cut? Ta.

Amanda said...

doesn't everything give you cancer these days?