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Comment by nielsbot | Hacker News Reader

the additive is brominated vegetable oil (or BVO)

can we change the headline to be less clickbait?

I don't see how "brominated vegetable oil linked to thyroid toxicity may finally get banned by FDA" is much different than "Soda additive linked to thyroid toxicity may finally get banned by FDA"; the original title seems to provide more context. Surely you're not saying the "linked to thyroid toxicity" is clickbait, as that's reflected by 50 years of science.

It's classic clickbait because it makes you click to find out what the one weird trick, sorry, one common toxin added to food is.

Exactly. I just came here to confirm my suspicion (already thought about the toxin being BVO)

Except most people wouldn’t really know what BVO is (or what it is used for), so soda additive is actually informative here.

Then they can literally write "Soda additive BVO linked..." and the headline has the same meaning. Everyone who knows what BVO is can decide for themselves if they're interested, everyone who didn't can still click to find out what this mysterious "BVO" is.

There room for 3 characters and a space in that headline. The only reason not to do that is to get clicks from people who wouldn't click if they knew what the article was actually about. It's clickbait.

Doubly so because it's not like BVO is the only dodgy chemical in soft drinks. Aspartame even is suspected of being related to thyroid wierdness.

Yes, you are right. They should have gone with that headline.

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