The Louisville community is frequently exposed to horrendous information regarding chemical matters. In the Fall of 1998, there was an incident at a vehicle manufacturing plant involving a chemical shipment that was piped into the wrong tank. An orange cloud was released and it was described repeatedly by emergency response personnel as harmful and toxic nitrous oxide. For those of you not familiar with this, nitrous oxide is fairly harmless although it is subject to abuse. Nitrous oxide is colorless, it is not orange.
Gross misinformation is harmful in the long run.
It denies people the ability to make informed decisions. There are three principal reasons for such misinformation reaching the public. The source does not really know the correct information. The release of misinformation is then accidental. The source does not want the people to know the correct information.