Q-Ray Exposed

[Hamradioguy]

Right now CBC (Channel 6 from Montreal for me) is doing a great expose of the infamous Q-Ray "ionized" bracelet. Great show, a full half hour long, in the vein of the old "60 Minutes", complete with hidden camera and a scientific analysis of just what's in the bracelet. Nice to see some skepticism on mainstream TV. It's just a pity this sort of journalism is so lacking on US TV.

I wish I'd thought to tape this.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I hope it shows up on Google video or Youtube. I'd love to see it.

 

[technoextreme]

 

[Smart_Cookie]

Agreed. That was a really good skeptical report.

It's on the cbc website for Marketplace. Here.

There's a video clip, and more links, etc.

Sounds like I should watch Marketplace more often (and The Fifth Estate).

 

[FramerDave]

How timely. Here's a link to a Wall Street Journal article about a decision handed down by the Seventh Circuit court against Q-Ray in a suit brought by the FTC:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/01/03/law-blog-opinion-of-the-day-the-q-ray-ionized-bracelet/

There's also a link to the full text of the judge's decision. To quote from the WSJ article:

"...words [the judge] uses to describe the Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, which was promoted as a miraculous cure for chronic pain: “poppycock”; “techno-babble”; and “blather.” He writes: “Defendants might as well have said: ‘Beneficent creatures from the 17th Dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief, and whisk them off to their homeworld every night to provide help in ways unknown to our science.’”

Now if they would take on Head On.

Looks like they're being more careful, though. After doing a Google search and looking at the top sites, including the "official" Q-Ray site, I found that none were making any claims as to what it would do, one called it "the original performance-enhancing bracelet" and only one referred to it as "ionized."

The Q-Ray site is virtually empty; the only testimonial is something along the lines of "I wish I had bought one sooner."

 

[lordshipmayhem]

This morning at 9:30 or so, I once again saw the Q-Ray Ionizing Bracelet ad, just as it was (as far as I can tell) before the findings of the Seventh Circuit Court. The channel was History Channel Canada, so obviously the American decision isn't impacting Q-Ray's operations on this side of the border.