Dialysis Pop-Tab Rumor

Some rumors never die. I recently noticed a friend saving pull tabs off of her pop cans. She was putting them in a small zip lock bag. When I asked what she was saving them for, she told me that she was donating them to the dialysis center. She went on to tell me that for every tab donated, they will give someone an extra minute on a dialysis machine. Having been on dialysis myself, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that this wasn’t true.

I then began to wonder how many other people thought this rumor was true. It didn’t take me long to come across an article on the topic from the National Kidney Foundation, "NKF Dispels Pull Tabs For Dialysis Time Rumor." The article says that this false rumor has "plagued the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the aluminum industry for decades." Even though the article was posted in 1998, it is apparently still relevant today in order to, hopefully, debunk the "pop-tab for dialysis" rumor once and for all!

While you can’t donate pull tabs for dialysis, I would encourage everyone to recycle by taking their pop cans to their local recycling center! Here is a link to that original article. - Lacy Smith, 11/27/2021

Source: National Kidney Foundation

NKF Dispels Pull Tabs For Dialysis Time Rumor

Published: June, 1, 1998

Retrieved: November 27, 2021