Search YouTube for “Miracle Mineral Solution” or “MMS” and you will find a trove of videos about how consuming bleach will treat various illnesses — acne, flu, malaria, HIV, hepatitis, cancer and autism.
MMS is just chlorine dioxide — an industrial bleach. The US Food and Drug Administration has warned that MMS “can cause serious harm to health” and said the agency “has received several reports of health injuries from consumers using this product, including severe nausea, vomiting and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration”. It advises that anyone who has the solution “should stop using it immediately and throw it away”.
One such YouTuber who has reportedly promoted this dangerous “treatment” is Laurel Austin of Lenexa, Kansas. According to an NBC News report, the first time she fed one of her sons the bleach solution, she filmed the moment and shared it with her thousands of subscribers.
Reporter Brandy Zadrozny described the video, writing that after the young man, who has autism, took the solution, “his arms seem to involuntarily twist around one another and he screams into his forearm before taking a bite of a banana”.
According to NBC, four of Austin’s of six children have autism, and a review of her Facebook page showed she has attempted various fad alternative treatments on her children. The news outlet reviewed social media posts and a Lenexa police department documents that reportedly show throughout the last year, Austin has given regular doses of chlorine dioxide to her two sons, aged 27 and 28.
The boys’ father, Bradley Austin, has reportedly been trying to prevent Austin from administering chlorine dioxide to their sons since he found out she was doing it in January. But, according to NBC, the Lenexa police and Kansas adult protective services looked into the matter and decided not to do anything about it.
The dismissal from law enforcement reportedly baffled Bradley, who told NBC News, “I just want her to stop.”
Austin did not respond to a Gizmodo request for comment, but she told NBC that the news outlet was “being used as a shameful tool with incorrect information by an absentee father as means to lower or even eliminate his child support obligation to his autistic special needs sons”.
According to NBC, police documents show that after Bradley reported to police that Austin was administering chlorine dioxide to their sons, officers reportedly spoke to a pharmacist at a state poison control centre who said it was unsafe. Then police visited Austin’s house where she said she was following the chlorine dioxide protocol of the Kerri Rivera, a prominent promoter of the treatment who is not a medical professional.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/03/amazon-pulls-books-peddling-toxic-autism-cures/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/sswlsh1vpmvbim0cq0d5.png” title=”Amazon Pulls Books Peddling Toxic “Autism Cures”” excerpt=”Amazon has pulled two books peddling pseudoscientific “autism cures” that promote giving children potentially toxic chemical baths and medication for mercury poisoning.”]
Since about 2012, Rivera has been championing the bogus MMS solution as a treatment for autism. In March, Amazon removed her book on the chlorine dioxide protocol. Rivera has participated in many seminars and interviews on YouTube channels promoting anti-vaccination ideas and conspiracy theories. In at least one of these videos, Austin is also interviewed, alongside Rivera, about using the treatment on her sons.
Police documents reviewed by NBC show that Austin shared with police a link to a Rivera video about chlorine dioxide protocol, and online articles from Autism Research Institute, which promotes the widely debunked notion that vaccines cause autism.
According to NBC, a police officer wrote about the articles in the report saying, “This legitimises the claim by Laurel of her use of MMS CLO2 as a holistic treatment approach.”
The documents also reportedly showed that police reviewed a list of supplements meant for one of the sons, which advised he take 16 doses of chlorine dioxide treatment each day, one every hour. This was reportedly signed and stamped by a primary care physician at Kansas University’s MedWest Family Medicine Clinic, Sarita Singh.
Singh reportedly confirmed to police she approved the chlorine dioxide treatment and told police that chlorine dioxide was “benign and not toxic,” according to NBC, which could not reach Singh as she is on maternity leave.
A spokesperson for the University of Kansas Health System told Gizmodo that the hospital couldn’t provide a statement since it would require Austin to sign a HIPAA waiver to reveal protected medical information about a patient. The organisation wouldn’t comment regardless, a spokesperson said, because it “would not have anything to add to this story at this time”.
Lenexa police department did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. A police spokesperson told NBC it didn’t have enough evidence to show the treatment was dangerous.
This investigation was reportedly the second time Lenexa police have looked into Austin administering bleach to her sons. NBC reports that last November the developmental disabilities program Options Services reported Austin to police after she gave the chlorine dioxide treatment to one of her sons in the parking lot after the staff refused to give him the solution. That reportedly led to a Kansas Adult Protective Services investigation.
A spokesperson for Kansas Department for Children and Families told Gizmodo that adult protective services cases are confidential and the agency wouldn’t comment.
According to police reports reviewed by NBC, a caseworker visited Austin’s house, saw a doctor’s note for the solution, interacted with the son, and decided not to pursue any action.