Open letter

Judge of the Nizhny Novgorod District Court
Lutoshkina Irina Vladimirovna
from science journalists and scientists
copy: to the newspaper editor
"Nizhny Novgorod worker"

Open letter

On May 21, 2012, the Nizhny Novgorod district court was scheduled to consider the claim of Redox LLC to protect the business reputation of a legal entity. The lawsuit was brought against the newspaper Nizhegorodsky Rabochiy and journalist Irina Slavina (Murakhtaeva).

Please note that the publication of Irina Slavina (Murakhtaeva) is due to the fulfillment of the professional duty of a journalist, whose responsibilities include conveying vital information to society. With her publication, the journalist drew the attention of readers to the misleading use of terminology in describing the products of Redox LLC.

These texts use pseudoscientific (that is, from the point of view of modern science, meaningless) terms - “electric vitamins”, “verbal wave tuning” and many others. Science does not know objects and phenomena that could be described by these terms, but lexically they are constructed in such a way as to create the illusion of scientificity and usefulness in the consumer. All this indicates the unreliability of advertising in the sense of paragraph 2, paragraph 3, article 5 of the Federal Law “On Advertising”. Since products related to consumer health are being advertised, it is the journalist's duty to warn citizens about the risks associated with inappropriate advertising of medical products.

The effectiveness of the “electric vitamins” technique offered by Redox employees is not substantiated by proper clinical studies conducted in accordance with the requirements of GCP (the international standard “Good Clinical Practice”), the results of which would be published in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals.

Moreover, today there is not a single universal, safe (allowing for use outside the walls of a medical institution and without the direct supervision of specialists) and at the same time proven effective method of treatment using electric currents. The vast majority of such methods turned out to be frankly pseudoscientific or completely fraudulent (“Hildra Clarke’s method of exterminating parasites,” various “water-charging” devices, “electric belts” popular in the early 1920s, etc.).

In addition, without any grounds and without permission, the Redox company uses for advertising purposes the name of the late Nobel laureate, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Ginzburg, who waged an irreconcilable fight against any manifestations of pseudoscience. This violates clauses 9 and 10, clause 3, article 5 of the Federal Law “On Advertising” and also makes the advertisement unreliable and inappropriate.

The owners of Redox, citing existing patents, which do not require scientific and medical expertise, mislead buyers and use their ignorance to sell their products, attributing to them qualities that they do not possess. Such phenomena today in our country, unfortunately, are widespread. They are associated with a catastrophic drop in the level of scientific and technical expertise and the dominance of non-scientific information in the media. We, science journalists and scientists, constantly have to draw public attention to similar situations.

In particular, after numerous publications in the media, the Russian Academy of Sciences Commission for Combating Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research conducted an examination of the so-called “Petrik filters.” After which the Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights filed a lawsuit in the Perovsky District Court of Moscow and won the trial in this case.

In this regard, we ask the court to contact the Commission under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Combating Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research to obtain an expert opinion on the description of the products of Redox LLC and assess its real therapeutic effect.

We also ask the court to contact the heirs of Academician V.L. Ginzburg and to the leadership of the Physics Advances Foundation, which he founded, to clarify the issue of the legal basis for the use of Vitaly Ginzburg Redox LLC in the description and advertising of products.

Certificate from the Federal Law “On Advertising” on the specified subparagraphs:

Article 5. General requirements for advertising
…
3. Advertising that contains information that does not correspond to reality is considered unreliable:
…
2) about any characteristics of the product, including its nature, composition, method and date of manufacture, purpose, consumer properties, conditions of use of the product, place of its origin, availability of a certificate of conformity or declaration of conformity, marks of conformity and signs of circulation on market, service life, shelf life of goods;
9) about official or public recognition, about receiving medals, prizes, diplomas or other awards;
10) on recommendations of individuals or legal entities regarding the object of advertising or on its approval by individuals or legal entities;
11) about the results of research and testing;

Signatures:

1. Kuvakin V. A., professor of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, editor-in-chief of the quarterly “Common Sense”, member of the Commission at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the fight against pseudoscience and falsification of scientific research, Moscow.
2. Zadereev E. S., Ph.D. biol. Sciences, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Biophysics SB RAS, member of the Coordination Council for Youth Affairs in Science and Education under the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation on Science, Technology and Education, laureate of a special diploma of the Club of Scientific Journalists of the All-Russian Prize “Enlightener-2011”, Krasnoyarsk.
3. Popov S. B., Dr. physics and mathematics Sciences, senior researcher at the SAI MSU. Lomonosov, Moscow.
4. Kaklyugin A., Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, APIT corp Atmospheric Plasma Instant Technology, Hangebieten, 67980 France.
5. Vodovozov A.V., general practitioner of the highest category, scientific editor of the magazines “ABC” and “Russian Pharmacies”, Moscow.
6. Orlova O. M., Ph.D. Philol. Sciences, chief editor of Technopark, Moscow.
7. Kostinsky A. Yu. Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, Head of the Regional Development Service of RVC, Moscow.
8. Mamontov D., scientific editor of the magazine “Popular Mechanics”, Moscow.
9. Moiseev A.V., Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, leading researcher at SAO RAS.
10. Semikhatov A., Dr. physics and mathematics Sciences, leading researcher, Physical Institute named after. Lebedev RAS, Moscow.
11. Pokrovsky V., scientific journalist, Moscow.
12. Iudin Dmitry Igorevich, Dr. physics and mathematics Sciences, Dr. biol. Sciences, leading researcher, Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod.
13. Davydenko S. S., Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, Deputy head Department, Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod.
14. Mareev Evgeniy Anatolyevich, Dr. physics and mathematics Sciences, corresponding member. RAS, deputy Director, Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod.
15. Kazantseva A., editor, TV channel Russia-2, Moscow.
16. Sergeev A., scientific observer for Radio Liberty, coordinator of the Club of Scientific Journalists, Prague.
17. Markina N., scientific editor of “Details of the World”, Moscow.
18. Reshetov V.N., Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, Associate Professor, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow.
19. Pichugina T., Ph.D. philosophical sciences, journalist STRF.ru, Moscow.
20. Parfenova A. V., scientific journalist, Moscow.
21. Paevsky A. S., member of the editorial board of the newspaper “Troitsky Variant - Science”, Moscow.
22. Shabanova S.V., editor of the portal Takzdorovo.Ru, Moscow.
23. Demina N. V., scientific journalist "Polit.ru", scientific editor of the magazine "Science in Focus", Moscow.
24. Maksimov N., scientific journalist, Moscow.
25. Zakoyan T. R., General Director of Logix-Telecom LLC, Moscow.
26. Borisov M. G., member of the editorial board of the newspaper “Troitsky Variant - Science”, scientific editor of the magazine “Science in Focus”, Moscow.
27. Gubailovsky V. A., scientific journalist, editor of Technopark, Moscow.
28. Solyus T. A., editor of the television program “Technopark”, Moscow.
29. Bayuk D. A., Ph.D. physics and mathematics Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, associate professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, deputy. editor-in-chief of the journal “Questions in the history of natural science and technology”, Moscow.
30. Soldatov A.V., editor of the television program “Technopark”, Moscow.
31. Zakutnyaya O. V., Ph.D. Philol. Sciences, scientific journalist, member of the editorial board of the newspaper “Troitsky Variant - Science”, Moscow.
32. Kharichev I. A., General Director of the magazine “Knowledge is Power”, Moscow.
33. Zimina T., Ph.D. chem. Sciences, editor of the natural sciences department of the journal “Science and Life”, Moscow.
34. Bogatov N. A., researcher, Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod.
35. Vlasov V.V., Dr. honey. Sciences, President of the Russian Society of Evidence-Based Medicine, Moscow.
36. Naimark E., Dr. biol. Sciences, Ved. Researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
37. Dolgin B., scientific editor of Polit.ru, Moscow.
38. Sokolov A., editor of the portal ANTHROPOGENES.RU, Moscow.
39. Timonov MA, editorial director of Takzdorovo.Ru, Moscow.
40. Tarasevich G., editor of the scientific department of the journal "Russian Reporter", Moscow.
41. Stern B. E., Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. Sciences, Ved. researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Troitsky Variant - Science”, Troitsk.
42. Ivashko S., editor-in-chief of the magazine “Details of the World”, Moscow.
43. Timoshenko A.D., scientific journalist (2011-2012 “Moscow News”, 2009-2011 - GZT.RU), Moscow.
44. Chumakov V. Yu., columnist and scientific editor of the journal “In the World of Science” (Scientific American), Moscow.