Protect yourself from email hoaxes

Hoax-chain messages have become a part of your everyday life but would you not want to know which ones are actually worth heeding to? Read below and get your facts right –

Nimbooz buzz

There were emails and SMSes circulated which mentioned a presence of a new virus – High Bone Fever – which can be a health hazard. Mr. Pradeep Wadhwa, Vice-President - Corporate Communications, PepsiCo India, says, “Nimbooz is a juice-based drink made from purified water, nimbu juice, sugar and a permitted commonly used preservative to give you a product that is completely safe to consume. PepsiCo uses only best quality food ingredients to manufacture all products and Nimbooz is made in state-of-the-art plants which are HACCP (a global food safety and quality certification) certified to deliver safe and contamination-free products. It is fully compliant with all the prevailing Food Safety Regulations laid down by Government of India.”

Coldarin, D cold, Actified and Vicks action 500

There were hoax emails sent where there were names of medicines taken which were blacklisted from consumption. We have Dr Punam Sachdev, General physician who throws some light on the matter.

Coldarin, D cold, Actified and Vicks action 500 contain Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) which can cause stroke and, therefor, must be avoided.In fact PPA is banned in nearly all the North American and European countries.

Nice or nimulid

Nice or Nimulid should not be used. It is banned in many countries due to rise in the cases of jaundice and hepatitis induced by its usage. In fact, the European Medicine Evaluation Agency has prohibited the use of Nimesulide for children under the age of 12. It is unfortunate that Nimesulide is still available in many countries.

Mobile and cancer

Television channels, spam emails and mobile alerts created an unwanted scare among people talking about how one must use left ear while making and receiving calls because this might cause grave damage to your brain. We bring before you both the sides of the story –

Cell phones emit radiofrequency but studies, however, show that the RF produced is far too low to cause any harm.

Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR) was set up to investigate effects of excessive usage of mobile on health. The MTHR found no link between cancer and mobile usages.

So, we asked Dr Nagraj, Oncologist at Nanavati Hospital who says, “The messages circulated are totally baseless. There is no correlation between mobile usage and cancer. We do not have any mechanistic evidence to prove it. So, people must not work panic unnecessarily”.

Image source : Getty

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