| Deadly Rat Urine on Soda Cans | |||
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| Netlore Archive | |||
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Below are three variants of a virulent email warning that went into circulation in late October 1998. Note the textual alterations (highlighted in bold) made by recipients as they passed it along.
Email text contributed anonymously, 11/20/98:
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Whenever you buy a can of coke or whatever, please make sure
that you wash the top with running water and soap or, if not available,
drink with a straw. A woman died after drinking a can of soda!
apparently, she didn't clean the top before drinking from the can. The
top was encrusted with dried rat's urine which is toxic and obviously
lethal!!!!! Canned drinks and other foodstuff are stored in
warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and
then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly
cleaned.
So you know what to do from now on folks........... tell someone! |
Email text contributed by Brian Jeffries, 11/16/98:
| Whenever you buy a can of coke or whatever, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or if not available drink out of a straw. A family friend died after drinking a can of soda! Apparently, she didn't clean the top before drinking from the can of soda! The top was encrusted with dried rat's urine which is toxic and obviously lethal!!! Canned drinks and other foodstuff are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly cleaned. So you know what to do from now on... |
Email text contributed by Bill Wilson, 11/08/98:
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Subj: Subject: Rat's Urine...Be aware of it!!!! Not joke.....
Be careful! Whenever you buy a can of coke or whatever, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or, if not available, drink with a straw. A family friend's friend (Katrina/Sophie: It's Auntie Bet's friend) died after drinking a can of soda! Apparently, she didn't clean the top before drinking from the can. The top was encrusted with dried rat's urine which is toxic and obviously lethal!!!!! Canned drinks and other foodstuff are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly cleaned. So you know what to do from now on folks........... |
Comments: The whole point of sharing a scary story, of course, is to make it as believable as possible so it will have its intended effect on the reader. That's why people add their own little lies to texts like the above before passing them on — to make the story seem more immediate, real, and authentic. It's a defining feature of urban legends.
That in itself doesn't prove the story false. It's possible, if unlikely, that someone actually died in the exact manner described, but the details given are untrustworthy. It is baldly stated, for example, that rat urine is "toxic and obviously lethal" — which is not true unless the rats in question happen to be carriers of diseases deadly to humans. As most people know, rats do sometimes carry such diseases, but nowhere does this message allude to that fact. It simply (and misleadingly) asserts that rat urine is deadly.
The emergence of the legend may be associated with 1998 outbreaks in Asia and Central America of a rat-borne illness known as leptospirosis. The disease can be quite deadly but is curable with antibiotics and most people recover fully if treated in time.
It's certainly true that crates of canned soft drinks could be exposed to rodent traffic during storage at some locations, but doubtful that urine contamination is common.
If the very idea makes you nervous, by all means wash your soda cans before consuming such beverages. Another bit of folklore that goes well with any cautionary tale is the timeless adage, "'Tis better to be safe than sorry."
Update: Rat Droppings on Soda Cans!
Commentary includes links to more info on rat-borne illnesses.
