Quote Originally Posted by CarlD
Then don't bring politics into it. This is a discussion, in this thread, of measurable evidence and the interpretation thereof, not politically correct left or right check-list positions. Science is science, no matter how the political winds try to bend it to their position.
Quote Originally Posted by VOLDADDY
It was a joke. My apologies for trying to interject a little humor.
While I would like to avoid the politics -- these days they are just far too inflammable -- humor on this topic is not a bad thing.

Most of you guys here are among the more 'chemically' advance posters, so this is probably a good time and place to say what I want to say.

The fears that people bring to the PoolForum are not, for the most part, irrational fears. Rather they are a rational response to the persistent and hyped anti-chlorine hysteria shrieked out by modern environmentalists and uncritically parroted by the mass media. The environmentalists are being irrational, but the consumers here are not!

What I mean is, they are responding rationally to the information sources which they have! I don't know how things were in the past, but today's media generators range, as an overall group, from the scientifically illiterate to the functionally brain-dead. But, consumers don't know this.

I do; you may; but they don't!

More to the point, they don't have any contradicting information sources, at least till they arrive here. The pool industry isn't going to contradict them, at least not much, because chlorine fears power the sales of chlorine alternatives and blends and pool addititives. The mass media isn't going to contradict them -- even when they know better -- because hysteria and hyped fears draw an audience many times better than a calm and somewhat technical consideration.

So, consumers arrive here knowing that chlorine is dangerous and toxic; knowing that their lives are shortened by its presence in their water and pools, and knowing that the responsible thing to do is to minimize its use, if only they can find an affordable alternative.

For me, and for y'all here, understanding this is critical to understanding what sort of responses consumers, with all their rational chlorine fears, need to be given. A big part of what's needed is to respect their rationality -- I myself need to be reminded of this, because I find the chlorine hysteria so tiresome.

So, each of you, please remind yourselves that, as irrational as much of the anti-chlorine hysteria is in its origin, yet that those fears are an entirely rational response on the part of most of the newbies here.
  • Please also remember that, even among college graduates, it is only a tiny minority who have the training, of mind and habit, think critically and skeptically about this issue.
  • Most college educated adults have functional math skills at the level of 1st year algebra OR LESS.
  • Most college educated adults have no training whatsoever that allows them rank relative risks.
  • Most college educated adults will readily accept the statement, "No price is too high to pay to save a life". Nor will they be able to see any inconsistency between accepting that statement, and then declining to pay $1000 extra for side air bags on their new car.
I could ramble on about why this is so, what I think about our education system, and so forth. But it's simply not relevant.

When they arrive here, most newbies are -- given the skills they have, and the information available to them -- acting rationally when they express fears about chlorine.

I need to, and you all need to respect that rationality, and help to redirect it by providing better information, and perhaps, better analytical skills.

Thanks,

Ben