Inside’s Higher Ed’s “Mama PhD” blog, a recent and somewhat dubious addition to the site,
today stirs up vaccination fears and expounds on the dangers of “sodium laurel [sic] sulfate.” The sources: unnamed “news reports” and a friend’s blog, respectively. “I read in another friend’s phenomenal blog (facebook reconnection again) about how she found sodium laurel sulfate in her face scrub and how it is not only a possible carcinogen but lends to the killing of marine life as well.”
Inside Higher Ed, if you’re not familiar with it, is home to many cranky academics who like to bemoan their students’ tendency to cite lazily or not at all.
Historiann | 27-Jun-08 at 3:25 pm | Permalink
Hi Julia–thanks for the link. Go over to Mama Ph.D. and read the first comment on the post you link to. I would like to take on the woo about immunizations, but I’ve got other stuff to write about since I’m actually “inside higher ed” myself.
this blog is overrated | 27-Jun-08 at 4:10 pm | Permalink
I saw that comment! Harsh, but I pretty much agree. That blog really does need, at the very least, an editor. I never read any of their other blogs so I’m not sure if it stands out in that respect.
Edward Vielmetti | 27-Jun-08 at 5:42 pm | Permalink
here’s snopes on SLS:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/shampoo.asp
the summary is “long-time Internet rumor”
this blog is overrated | 27-Jun-08 at 5:49 pm | Permalink
But that’s sodium laurYl sulfate. They’re different. I heard it on my friend’s blog.
Edward Vielmetti | 27-Jun-08 at 11:00 pm | Permalink
Your friend is named Laurel, or is it Lauryl?