- Villejuif leaflet
The Villejuif leaflet (also known as the Villejuif flyeror the Villejuif list) was a scientifically inaccurate
rumour , passed via apamphlet , that causedmass panic inEurope in the late1970s and1980s as it included common non-harmful chemical substances - in particular,citric acid (also known as E330) - in a list of 10 allegedcarcinogen s.Its name derivesFact|date=October 2008 from itsFact|date=October 2008 false claim to have been produced at the hospital in
Villejuif .History
The earliest known sighting of the leaflet was in February
1976 , in the form of a single typewritten page inFrance . Homemade copies were spread across Europe for a decade in the form of a leaflet or flyer pamphlet that was distributed between friends and apart from citric acid included 9 other chemicals in a list of substances that it called dangerous toxins and carcinogens.http://www.jstor.org/pss/2749354] The original author of the typewritten list was never found, and the leaflet affected about 7 million people in its uncontrollable propagation.Research
This phenomenon became the subject of academic
empirical research byJ. N. Kapferer , president of theFoundation for the Study and Information on Rumors (an organisation inParis , France) and professor of communication atL'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and l'Institut Supérieur des Affaires (auniversity in France) because of its persistence contrary to all official denials about the safety of citric acid and its wide distribution, as about half of all French housewives had been exposed to it. The resultingscientific paper was published in 1989 in the 53th volume of the "Public Opinion Quarterly ", a journal associated with theAmerican Association for Public Opinion Research and published by theUniversity of Chicago Press (now published by theOxford University Press .According to a 1990 book also written by
Jean-Noël Kapferer , the leaflet drew the attention ofexpert s, who immediately recognised its dubious nature. The leaflet wrongly listed E330, citric acid, as the most dangerous of all carcinogens.http://books.google.com/books?id=b0VYBLUC7Z0C&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=The+VILLEJUIF+Hospital+list+e330&source=web&ots=cBgyDAF6y0&sig=TVUfqHysM5SGkZuEo4CEuCkpuEI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result]pread
The rumour, considered one of the most important experienced in the French society, spread via a translated leaflet in
Great Britain ,Germany ,Italy , theMiddle East , andAfrica .Journalist s working fornewspaper s distributed the list of alleged carcinogens verbatim; even a 1984 book written by a medicaldoctor aiming at informing the general public about the dangers ofcancer included the substances in the flyer in a list of carcinogens, without checking the flyer's accuracy.False connection with the hospital of Villejuif
It was reproduced many times by many individuals as friends sought to inform other friends of the harmful chemicals in their food, and in the course of uncontrolled copying a version of the leaflet included the name of the
Villejuif Hospital , making victims to the rumour believe that the list was authorised by it. Even though the hospital (asGoustave-Roussy Institute ) denied any association, it was unable to stop the further dissemination of the flyer, which went on from hand to hand until at least 1986 and was passed toelementary school s, organisations, and even varioushospital s, whilemedical school s andpharmacy school s also fell victim to the list because of its (unauthorised and untrue) reference to the well-known hospital of Villejuif.Possible explanations
Citric acid is important for a chemical process named
Krebs cycle , but "Krebs" meanscancer in German, and it is has been suggested that this linguistic confusion may have been responsible for false claims that citric acid is carcinogenic.http://www.ukfoodguide.net/e330.htm]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.