Here’s a rare case of a North Carolina university being years ahead of California’s social activists. In 1998, students at N.C. State advocated a ban on the chemical dihydrogen monoxide, which is “a component of automobile exhaust” and in sufficient quantities is known to cause asphyxiation, oxidization of metals, accelerated decomposition of wood products, electricity to conduct to any surface that also contains electrical charge, and other ills.
Six years later, the city council of the Calif. town of Aliso Viejo planned a vote to ban Styrofoam cups, which are made with the dread chemical.
Incidentally, the vote may take place regardless, only with a different, silly reason for doing so (“If you get Styrofoam into the [watershed] and it breaks apart, it’s virtually impossible to clean up.”)
