Calls for bar on salesman promoting bleach to cure autism
Public are put at risk by the claims of Las Vegas healer, who tells the sick they can be cured with a 'miracle' solution, which has the same contents as industrial bleach, campaigners say
The Telegraph, UK/April 11, 2015
By Laura Donnelly
Campaigners are calling for a “healer” to be barred from a UK alternative health conference after claiming he can cure Ebola, AIDS and autism with industrial-strength bleach.
Salesman Jim Humble, a one-time gold prospector from Las Vegas who describes himself as an archbishop of his own church, promotes a super-strength solution - which he says can cure a huge variety of ailments.
Health authorities have previously warned that the product, sold as Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) “may pose serious health risks” including kidney failure and poisoning.
In 2012 the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) likened it to "industrial-strength bleach" and warned "when taken as directed it could cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea."
It reminded local authorities “these products should not be on sale”.
However, each Trading Standards office is run by a different council, making action more difficult to enforce, experts said.
Mr Humble, a former Scientologist, who describes himself as Archbishop of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, claims that the solution can cure conditions including autism if used as an enema.
He is due to appear at the upcoming “Spirit of Health” conference in Sussex on May 5th, the location of which has been moved following criticism from campaigners.
On his website, the healer claims that his solutions are the answer to “AIDS, hepatitis A,B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer and many more of mankind's worse diseases.”
He states: "Enemas have been around for ages and serve as a safe and effective way to gently clean the colon when problems with digestion and/or elimination occur.
"Benefits have been observed repeatedly as a result of using a HIGHLY DILUTED amount of MMS in the enema solution."
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Campaigner Joe Walton said the salesman should be barred from the conference.
He said: "The UK Border Agency should deny entry due to the immense stupidity and risk to public health” of promoting the products.
The conference was due to take place at Seaford Head School, which cancelled the booking following negative local publicity, but is now scheduled to take place in The Old Chapel Centre, in Alfriston.
Local families criticised the conference for promoting Mr Humble as their “honoured guest”.
Jennifer Byrne, from Newhaven, said the claimed cure for autism was “taking advantage of desperate families and care givers”.
Fiona O’Leary, a mother of two autistic children, added: “Autism is a neuro-developmental condition and not a disease, so even the word ‘cure’ is highly insulting to autistic people.”
Prof David Colquhoun, a pharmacology expert at University College, London, and a prominent critic of alternative medicine, said: “This sort of quackery is simply preying on the vulnerable; it is only those who are truly desperate who are most at risk.”
He criticised Britain’s system of regulation, saying that the treatment of such products as food rather than medicines did not properly protect the public.
“It beats me why Trading Standards do not jump on these things, but a system where action depends on hundreds of different councils doesn’t protect the consumer,” hes said.
On the Spirit of Health conference’s website, Mr Humble describes MMS as a “simple health formula that cured malaria”.
He has also said it can treat baldness, Parkinson's disease, arthritis, tapeworms and allergic reactions to cats.
Mr Humble claims it kills microorganisms that cause disease and said its concentration was so low it could not be compared to bleach and it was “not dangerous if used correctly”.
He has stated that his miracle solution has been used by five million users worldwide and has saved 100,000 lives.
But the FSA states: "Miracle Mineral Solution is a 28 per cent sodium chlorite solution which is equivalent to industrial strength bleach."
The watchdog says it can cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea and if the solution is diluted less than instructed, can cause damage to the gut and red blood cells, which could result in respiratory failure.
It issued the advice in 2012 after a campaign by Rhys Morgan, a 15-year-old boy with Crohn’s disease, who saw the product being advertised on an online forum and urged authorities to protect the vulnerable from "pseudo-scientific nonsense".
In March, the Telegraph disclosed that President Yahyah Jammeh, the Gambian dictator who claiming to have found a herbal cure for HIV-AIDS, had found allies in a British homoeopathic group sponsored by the official suppliers of homoeopathic medicine to the Royal family
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