Quackwatch Mission Statement

Continuing on from my last post; this is another really useful site which exposes the many fraudsters and snake oil peddlers that inhabit the internet.  While the internet does provide the platform for may fraudsters to sell their wares, it also (if you are prepared to look!) also provides some useful counterbalance to all these different claims.  My business used to be selling herbs, (although the majority to pharmceutical companies, who would extract specific active ingredients for use in various medicines), and therefore I am aware of some of the 'useful' ingredients of certain specific herbs.
But the experience from their also provided me with an insight into certain dubious claims, and actions of a variety of different companies, who produce all manner of different substances, with all manner of weird and wonderful claims.  I hope that sites like the one below, will educate people, so they can make informed decisions about certain claims.  I am not for a moment proposing that I agree 100% with everything that is written on this site...but I do believe it does give me some useful FACTS and information that I use to decide the "Bullshit Rating" of what I read or am told elsewhere.

Mission Statement: "Quackwatch, Inc., which was a member of Consumer Federation of America from 1973 through 2003, is a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Its primary focus is on quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. Founded by Dr. Stephen Barrett in 1969 as the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, it was incorporated in 1970. In 1997, it assumed its current name and began developing a worldwide network of volunteers and expert advisors. Our activities include:

• Investigating questionable claims
  
• Answering inquiries about products and services
  
• Advising quackery victims
  
• Distributing reliable publications
  
• Debuking pseudoscientific claims
  
• Reporting illegal marketing
  
• Assisting or generating consumer-protection lawsuits
  
• Improving the quality of health information on the Internet
  
• Attacking misleading advertising on the Internet"