An Extraordinarily Dangerous Quack Product
August 12th, 2010
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Most quack products are fairly harmless in and of themselves. Homeopathy, for example, may displace legitimate treatments but will not cause harm on its own, since it’s just water. Herbal remedies sometimes do cause harm due to impurities from shoddy manufacturing or the occasional allergic reaction, but this is rare. Normally products that can harm or kill when used as instructed don’t manage to stay on the shelves long.
Of course, there are a few that are very dangerous and a product called “Miracle Mineral” has recently been cited for its extraordinarily dangerous formula. Doctor David Kroll at Science Based Medicine called it “one of the most egregious and obscene product cases I have seen in 15 years of teaching on botanical and non-botanical products.”
The product is one of those cure-alls, which claims to cure everything from cancer to AIDS.
The page for the product states:
The answer to AIDS, hepatitis A,B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer and many more of mankind’s worse diseases has been found. Many diseases are now easily controlled. More that 75,000 disease victims have been included in the field tests in Africa. Scientific clinical trials have been conducted in a prison in the country of Malawi, East Africa.
Separate tests conducted by the Malawi government produced identical 99% cure results. Over 60% of the AIDS victims that were treated in Uganda were well in 3 days, with 98% well within one month. More than 90% of the malaria victims were well in 4 to 8 hours. Dozens of other diseases were successfully treated and can be controlled with this new mineral supplement. It also works with colds, flu, pneumonia, sore throats, warts, mouth sores, and even abscessed teeth (it’s the only thing that controls and cures abscessed teeth).
But what sets this product apart is what it is. Basically, they’re selling a form of sodium chlorite, at a concentration of 28% by some reports. Sodium chlorite is an oxidizer which is used as an industrial bleaching agent and occasionally for disinfection. It’s quite toxic, with a potentially lethal dose being only about 15 grams. It’s basically a form of chlorine bleach, although slightly different from the normal household variety.
The product instructs users to mix it with acidic fruit juices, such as citrus juice. This will produce a chemical reaction that generates chlorine dioxide, an even more potent and toxic chemical. Chlorine dioxide is a highly toxic, water-soluble gas that is also very corrosive and can irritate skin and eyes, even at fairly low concentrations. It’s extremely reactive and a powerful oxidizer. It also readily decomposes to produce chlorine gas, which is also highly reactive and extremely toxic.
Chlorine dioxide is used as a biocide for the prevention of biofouling of water in cooling towers and other industrial applications. It’s also used, in some circumstances, to disinfect water. Of course, when used for such purposes, it is used in fairly limited concentrations and is subject to strict safety rules for handling and transportation.
Thus far there are no reports of deaths. Given the quantities used, it’s more likely that use of this product would result in injury or irritation, including chemical burns. However, fatal reactions are certainly possible if enough is used.
FDA Warns Consumers of Serious Harm from Drinking Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS)
Product contains industrial strength bleachThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to take Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.” The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.
The FDA has received several reports of health injuries from consumers using this product, including severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration.
Consumers who have MMS should stop using it immediately and throw it away.
MMS is distributed on Internet sites and online auctions by multiple independent distributors. Although the products share the MMS name, the look of the labeling may vary.
The product instructs consumers to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice. This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment. High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.
MMS claims to treat multiple unrelated diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, the H1N1 flu virus, common colds, acne, cancer, and other conditions. The FDA is not aware of any research that MMS is effective in treating any of these conditions. MMS also poses a significant health risk to consumers who may choose to use this product for self-treatment instead of seeking FDA-approved treatments for these conditions.
The FDA continues to investigate and may pursue civil or criminal enforcement actions as appropriate to protect the public from this potentially dangerous product.
The FDA advises consumers who have experienced any negative side effects from MMS to consult a health care professional as soon as possible and to discard the product. Consumers and health care professionals should report adverse events to the FDA’s MedWatch program at 800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Quackery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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August 12th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Now I’ve seen it all – someone pushing oral doses of Clorox as a cure for AIDS.
Those responsible for this should be made to consume their own product at gun-point until their insides liquefy, and they die, writhing in agony.
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August 13th, 2010 at 3:36 am
I’ve read something similar from some quack who claimed that injecting poeple with hydrochloric acid would have the same effect…
I had chlorox pills issued in the service (for purifying water), I used them once and decided that the taste was horrid and reverted to the old sandfilter-charcoal approach…but then most water bodies in Sweden doesn’t really need to be treated before you can safely drink it (especially up north).
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August 13th, 2010 at 5:37 am
To be fair, the bleach probably *will* kill dangerous organisms.
All except those selling the miracle cure, anyway.
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August 13th, 2010 at 9:27 am
There’s an article about this over at ScienceBasedMedicine, and it’s really terrifying. There have been people writing to the suppliers asking if it’s better to inject it; whether or not to quit their anti-retrovirals; etc.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=6430
In the comments, somebody posted a link to a Twitvid of a kid who was banned from a Crohn’s Disease forum (he suffers from the disease himself) basically for posting the FDA warning and then defending doing so.
http://www.twitvid.com/Z7TOH
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August 13th, 2010 at 10:06 am
There is a constant refrain from the quacks that orthodox doctors are in some sort of conspiracy against them. This supposes that doctors would prefer their patients to not recover rather than prescribe alternate treatments. I know doctors have a bit of a reputation for arrogance but the belief that they would prefer patients to die rather than prescribe a treatment that works just because they don’t understand how it works seems to be going a bit far. In fact, the evidence in support of this thesis is thin even by medical crank standards.
However, part of the problem stems from the legal environment that we have allowed to develop around pharmaceutics in general, and yes there are potential treatments that do not reach the hands of clinicians because the potential legal exposure is not offset by the potential profits. That’s too bad, but it is not licence for running outright in the opposite direction, and believing that every idea has some merit.
It’s easy to criticize the pharmaceutical industry for some of their actions, but the fact is that it is really not acceptable to market, or make available a specific that cures 80% of the time and kills 20% of the time except under very narrow circumstances. Unfortunately, the current state of medical care combined with current state of public expectations, really doesn’t make the attending physician the best person to determine those cases where the risk might be acceptable.
Consequently, we will always be somewhat behind the cutting edge, when it come to the availability of pharmaceutical agents, and unfortunately that is the way it must be. What is also unfortunate, is this state of affairs also makes fertile ground for exploitation by cranks and charlatans.
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August 13th, 2010 at 10:07 am
DV82XL said:
If if were me, I wouldn’t do it, not even with a gun to my head. I’d take the bullet rather than drink the bleach. Being shot is quick. I’d be the better way to go, IMHO.
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August 13th, 2010 at 10:14 am
DV82XL said:
What about the argument that the author of this blog makes (which pretty much makes sense to me) that, from a purely profit-driven standpoint, the pharmasuitical companies would like for you to live a long life that is free of severe acute medical conditions that might kill or incapacitate you, but with a number of nuscence problems like erectile disfuncton, heartburn, seasonal alergies, clinical depression, anxiety, elevated cholesteral etc. etc. because these are where they can make a lot of money (especially for years on end) Also, the argument can be made that the pharmasuitical industry would prefer for people to live to at least their 80’s, because the elderly generally have the most chronic medical problems and they make the best customers. A person who needs a lot of medical attention from age 70 to 90 is ideal.
Based on the profits and the sales of the various drugs it seems to me like this makes sense, from a pure financial standpoint.
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August 13th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Q said:
Well of course there is profit to be made in quality-of-life type medications, as so there should be, mostly because these drugs are treating choice-of-lifestyle conditions, some exceptions notwithstanding. However, I’m not so sure that we can assume then that they would not service markets for acute medical conditions, except for the fact that in the case of some more aggressive treatments, there is a real exposure to civil action if something goes wrong, and that the process to get approval is sometimes onerous and expensive given the size of the potential market.
That sounds cold-blooded, but the fact remains that these are for-profit industries, that must answer to shareholders. Even then it is difficult for me to find too much fault in their attitude when I have recently been made aware of that the pension fund I am currently drawing from has considerable positions in these companies.
In terms of the larger issue here, killing the market for quack cures, will require some overhaul of the legal environment that medicine is currently practised in. I am not saying that the drug companies hands are lilly-white, or that there is not a certain aura of protectionism that is projected by mainstream medicine, I am saying that the rise of this sort of quackery is symptomatic of problems in the medical care delivery system that should be addressed.
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August 13th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
DV82XL said:
Well, I’ve never said that there is not money to be made treating acute conditions. Of course, drug companies produce cancer drugs, infectious disease drugs etc. Some companies specialize in this, even-though it’s a smaller market.
I’m just pointing out that, from a profitability standpoint, there’s no incentive to kill your customers. You’d be better off with people living long lives and descending into numerous minor chronic conditions that can’t be cured but can be managed. It would be foolish for big pharma to engage in the conspiracies of killing the population for profit.
It’s not just that. There’s more than one pharmaceutical company and the competition makes for an incentive toward better medications. If my company makes a cancer drug and it has a descent rate of success, but one day my competitor comes out with a drug that treats the same cancer and is dramatically better at it, chances are I’ll see my sales tank. You can’t keep stuff like that from happening.
I had a drug company researcher once bring up the fact that their company was working on drugs to better treat diabetes with the goal of reducing insulin dependence. They said that on the surface this might seem crazy, since the same company sold insulin. However, it would be far worse if a drug that reduced the need for insulin were developed by their competitor. Then they’d lose out twice over.
My point is to show that the whole notion that it’s profitable to pump people with poison to kill them is ridiculous.
Many have asked why the system of mainstream medicine can’t help some condition. They’ll demand to know why there’s no cure for AIDS or why most pancreatic cancer patients die and so on. The best answer I can give is to say that it’s a very very difficult thing to come up with medications. Sure, there are some we can’t help, and there likely always will be, but progress is being made. Something like HIV is a tough nut to crack.
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August 13th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
drbuzz0 said:
No question, however something is very wrong when a legitimate pharmaceutical company could conceivably be sued out of existence for an honest mistake of the sort that any scientific endeavour is vulnerable to, and charlatans can sell Clorox and silver suspensions, as internal medications without fear.
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August 13th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I must admit I’m baffled by this. WTF is this guy thinking? There’s plenty of pseudo-medicines out there that make wild claims about their product, but they don’t do any direct physical harm. If you’re going to sell a quack remedy, pick something harmless! Don’t poison people!
I have to wonder if the seller actually believes what he’s claiming. The only other explanation I can come up with is that he thinks he’ll be improving humanity’s gene pool by poisoning the gullible.
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August 13th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
DV82XL said:
I have some idea why these guys escape being sued and big companies are more likely to be sued for a problem with medication. Mainstream drug companies are big and have millions or billions of dollars, and things like this are usually small fly-by-night kind of operations running with a few people involved or maybe even one person. There’s not nearly as much money there especially after all the legal fees. Some of these people probably just spend it as fast as it comes in anyway.
Why do you think lawyers like to go after big firms? They have a lot of money that they could go after. Someone like this, you could maybe get a multi million dollar judgment on them, but what does it matter if they’re just a bum with a few thousand in the bank? You can’t get more than they have.
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August 14th, 2010 at 12:54 am
From the linked article: “The product instructs consumers to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice.”
There is some good news here (from a chemistry perspective). The weak and dilute acids found in beverages will not react with the chlorite to produce much chlorine dioxide. Sodium chlorite is not something you’d want to consume large quantities of, but it’s much less toxic than chlorine dioxide.
The ‘Doctor’ who is selling this crap is actually losing out: the chemical (chlorite) which is the most expensive ingredient of his product (assuming the only other ingredient is just tap water) is being added in far higher concentrations than necessary. This leads me to believe he just plucked the 28% number out of thin air.
On the other hand if the victim was to prepare his/her toxic ****tail (male chicken!) using a powdered acid (eg citric acid powder) and accidentally used far too much, yet was still able to drink it (I imagine it would taste horrible if too much powder was added?) then they would be in serious trouble!
Also from the link, the quack’s Q and A blog supposedly says: “MMS IV is much more effective than taking by mouth. Stop the drugs immediately. HIV is not dangerous. It does not cause AIDS. What causes AIDS is the drugs that you are taking, each one is extremely poisonous. That causes AIDS. The vomiting was a good sign.”
While I cant possibly imagine how devastating having HIV/AIDS would be, if someone had these diseases shouldn’t they know enough about it to realize that the text quoted above is just plain bull****? Are there really people who would take the word of some funny-named doctor on the internet – who supposedly did ‘research’ in Africa – over the word of their own GP, or disregard all the scientific/medical knowledge of HIV and AIDS that we have?
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August 14th, 2010 at 1:09 am
I just read the surprisingly detailed preparation instructions on the MMS website. I am now convinced the guy is deliberately trying to kill people.
Check out this fantastic gem of advice from the site:
—
ALWAYS REMEMBER:
1. Do not continue to make yourself sick
2. Never stop taking MMS.
—
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August 14th, 2010 at 1:42 am
Zoey said:
Yeah, I thought about it and one thing I’m wondering is what happens when someone drinks it. Mixing it with a citrus juice is going to expose it to an acid, but a pretty mild acidic solution (depending on the type to some extent)
But what happens when that stuff hits your stomach? Gastric pH is about 1.0-2.25 on an empty stomach. There’s a significant amount of acid in there! That’s not a reaction I want going on in my gut
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August 14th, 2010 at 5:48 am
Q said:
Big Pharma would prefer you to have something which has a name but no one knows what causes it. I must not be life threatening but must be bad enough to keep taking their medicine and if the symptoms can be anything you like even better.
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August 15th, 2010 at 2:49 am
This has been echoing through the blogosphere since July 30. I have a roundup of all the posts, including yours, at at Bleachgate or Miracle Mineral Solution. If you are a twitter user, check for #bleachgate.
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August 17th, 2010 at 9:01 am
I first came across this stuff more than 3 years ago. I’m amazed it has taken so long to hit the scientific blogging community. I think you will find the lethal dose of sodium chlorite is around 15 grams, not milligrams, going by the LD50 in rats. I have read of a near fatal human poisoning with 10 grams. Severe gastric irritation is likely to be the main symptom of taking this stuff, with more serious effects in susceptible individuals. It is supposed to cure malaria in one dose, but there is no way you could get a blood concentration of chlorine dioxide high enough to kill the feeblest micro-organisms without causing severe or possibly fatal symptoms.
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August 17th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Paul said:
Thanks. Sorry for the error. I corrected it.
However, from what I have read it’s possible to get some pretty nasty reactions at much lower levels. Gastric problems, vomiting, dehydration and even burns to the esophagus have been reported from this product. That does not surprise me.
Even less than a gram is enough to cause some nasty (although probably not fatal) symptoms. Things like airway inflammation, burning of eyes, severe irritation to the stomach and that kind of thing. It’s a fairly nasty chemical even at less than fatal levels. You’d never want to be exposed to significant amounts internally!
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August 18th, 2010 at 4:24 am
[...] Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » An Extraordinarily Dangerous … [...]
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February 24th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
[...] this is one 16 year old in the UK. You may remember “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” a product being sold as a cure-all which is actually an industrial grade bleaching agent. Rhys Morgan has Chron’s Disease and when he saw a website advertising “Miracle Mineral [...]
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