Thoughts Provoked By Letter . . .

. . . but probably not the ones desired by the sender.

I just got an email from a friend, who had clearly just received it and forwarded it right along. My friend was nice enough to use the Bcc: option that is the least courtesy that one can employ when passing along spam, but judging from the embedded CC: lists from previous senders, there's a good chance that you have gotten this email yourself.

Yes, I said "spam."

Now, I'm sure that the senders and forwarders of this email meant well, and judged the letter to be "information." In particular, my friend has good reason to be concerned about the email's message.

In case you haven't gotten your copy yet, the email discusses the risks associated with dioxins, their link to cancer in humans, and their presence in plastics. The letter goes on to say that you therefore shouldn't use plastic containers in the microwave or freezer, nor should you use plastic wrap as a cover in the microwave, and while you're at it, you'd probably better distrust the cardboard containers that heat-and-serve meals come in.

Really?

My first thought: Okay, I'm pretty sure that dioxins are not good for people, and second, there are any number of reasons to avoid plastic containers and plastic wrap. But playing the cancer card?

My next thought: What is the magnitude of the risk? How does it compare, say, to smoking a pack a day of cigarettes?

I therefore Googled "dioxin cancer saran wrap." This is the top link returned. The next few pages of search results are exclusively filled with links to various other sites that debunk the connections, including this one, which traces the propagation of this spam to an interesting degree.

In other words, what I originally suspected to be a small risk turns out to be non-existent.

I think it's probably not worth going on about this at length. But please, people, there are enough real things for us all to worry about without mindlessly forwarding scare stories.