Go Green Expo a breeding ground for pseudoscience

Society for Science Based Healthcare
Protecting the "informed" in your informed consent.

Go Green Expo a breeding ground for pseudoscience

The Go Green Expo, a popular annual event held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, opened its doors in Wellington over the weekend, with 130 different stalls promoting a wide range of products and services.

Many stalls were run by alternative health companies, and most of these stalls had misleading and dangerous health claims prominently displayed in their signage and fliers.

“Essential oils... kill viruses and bacteria”
“Apple cider... prevents stroke/cardiac arrest”
“Spirulina... repairs brain damage”
“Himalayan salt... cleans teeth, kills all germs and bacteria”
“Colloidal Silver... kills viruses”
“Cleansing sponge proven to eliminate... eczema, psoriasis, rosacea”
“The healing power of light... allergic respiratory diseases... neurological disorders”

Daniel Ryan, a committee member of the Society for Science Based Healthcare, said "I visited the Expo on Saturday. The amount of scaremongering and made up claims I heard and saw at various stalls was shocking. How are they allowed to get away with this?"

Last year the organisers of the Go Green Expo were contacted by the Society for Science Based Healthcare about misleading health claims on their website. The most obvious of the misleading claims, regarding magnetic bracelets and visible light therapy, were removed from the site. This year the Expo’s website is once again hosting misleading health claims, and members of the Society for Science Based Healthcare have submitted a series of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority about these new advertisements.

Many of the companies seen making misleading health claims at the Go Green Expo have previously been the subjects of successful complaints that the members of the Society for Science Healthcare have made to the ASA. In the ASA’s rulings for these complaints, the companies in question were asked to stop making the claims. However, these same misleading claims are still being made in posters, flyers, and other literature at the Go Green Expo and similar public events.

Ryan said “it’s disappointing to see a lack of oversight from the organisers of Go Green Expo.

Some of the companies attending these events have a track record of misleading consumers, and Go Green Expo have been made aware of this issue. However, they appear to be doing nothing to ensure that their stallholders are complying with consumer protection laws and therefore they are not doing enough to protect the people attending the expo.”

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