this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

I forget the YouTube channel name now, but I recall someone testing some of the cleansing bracelets, with "energy" and "healing" powers...

It turned out that the energy was mostly in the form of radioactive materials, and the only thing you would be healed from by wearing it, was your continued life.

Crystals, on the other hand, are mostly just inert and harmless. So if someone wants to keep a "healing" crystal or whatever on them or put it in their office or something, okay sure. It won't do what it claims to, but it won't hurt you.

But if I see someone wearing a cleansing bracelet, I'm going to reach for my Hazmat suit (since I don't own one, I'm just going to keep a safe distance from the person willingly carrying around what is very likely to be radioactive material), and reevaluate my association with anyone willing to buy such nonsense with absolutely no understanding that it's probably harmful.

I forget the radioactive material used. From what I recall, it's not "drop and run" dangerous, but prolonged exposure is probably going to have some unpleasant side effects... Kind of like radon (it wasn't radon... Radon is a gas with an extremely short half life IIRC, but it can be dangerous to have long term exposure - many years, and it's in most homes.... Buy a radon sensor folks, they're not much more expensive than a good smoke detector).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe it was "The Thought Emporium"? He made two vids on it, one being a follow-up

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I looked and that seems right. I watched two videos on it, IIRC, and it was interesting and concerning.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure how much sympathy I can muster for people who are so superstitious that they'll buy that snake oil, but at the same time, the manufacturer is being incredibly deceptive. So I'm a bit split on the issue. At the end of the day, one thing I'm not uncertain about is that consumer protection should be stronger for such things.

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