Moromillas wrote:
Shoggothgoat wrote:
Seriously what kinda of dumba** people would think that drinking bleach is a good idea? not to mention industrial strength bleach. Has there ever been a case where ingesting anything with the name "industrial strenght" in it has been a good idea?
The desperate kind. The kind that think AS people are so forgone that death would be a better alternative. They'll also say "it's not bleach" and rattle off some chemicals. Seems like they're in the crazy dehumanization camp, where autism is separate from the person, and that it's only dangerous to "the autism".
The chemical they would rattle off is sodium chlorite, the main ingredient. There is no reason for them to think that is bleach. It even looks visually so similar to sodium chloride that if they know just a little chemistry (but only just a little, which is the norm) they may know that sodium chloride is table salt (as they know that H2O is water, it's one of those 'common knowledge' chemicals) and jump to the erroneous conclusion that it is just another harmless salt. The term "mineral" in the title would lead them in that direction.
A bottle of household bleach does say 'sodium hypochlorite' on the ingredient label but visually (if you only know a smidgen of chemistry) that seems farther removed from 'sodium chlorite' than 'sodium chloride' does, which differs by only one letter (which will count for something to people who only know a smidgen of chemistry). Plus there's that word 'mineral' which will make it seem more like salt than bleach.
All in all I can see why people think of this as a harmless relative of salt rather than a bleaching agent. To them, "you're feeding your kid bleach, you monster" will just sound like an unfounded attack.
All in all, I think the feds need to clamp down on this rather than expecting Joe Public to suddenly know enough chemistry to realize what is happening.