Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) has been marketed by Miracle Mineral Trust in New Zealand as a supposed autism ‘cure’, writes Glenn Lambert-Vickers.

MMS is also claimed to cure many diseases, including cancer, hepatitis and HIV.

Health authorities state there is no basis to these claims and ingesting the solution can cause serious health risks and is potentially fatal.

MMS consists of sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid which becomes chlorine dioxide, or bleach, when diluted with lemon juice. The chlorine dioxide solution is then taken orally or by enema. Claims made on the Miracle Mineral Trust website use pseudoscience techniques to suggest evidence for benefits the solution and are designed to mislead consumers into buying the product as a miracle cure.

Health authorities state there is no evidence to back claims that MMS is a successful intervention for any condition and that ingesting bleach is harmful. The US Food and Drug Administration states high oral doses of this bleach, such
as those recommended in the labelling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.

In May 2015 Louis Daniel Smith was convicted by a federal jury in Washington for selling industrial bleach, marketed as MMS, as a cure for a range of conditions. Smith provided instructions with the product that nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea were all indications the miracle cure was working. A maximum sentence of 34 years was imposed. The BBC exposed a secret conference run by Leon Edwards in Surrey, England to promote MMS as an autism ‘cure” in June 2015. Edwards suggested autism could be purged by the solution, a claim with no scientific basis.