latest

Parents Are Making Their Children Drink Bleach to 'Cure' Them of Autism

Parents are making their children drink industrial bleach to cure them of autism—with the potentially deadly practice linked back to a U.S. cult.

According to British tabloid the Sunday People, six British police forces have probed cases in which children as young as two have been forced to undergo the potentially lethal treatment.

The treatment being administered is CD (Chloride Dioxide) or MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution)—with a secret Facebook group touting its use to desperate parents in the U.K.

The method has been promoted by a controversial U.S. church with a branch in Los Angeles - the secretive Genesis II Church, founded by Jim Humble, a former scientologist.

A 2016 investigation by Eyewitness News and ABC News found an underground network clustered in southern California promoting MMS on Facebook as a cure for ailments including cancer, Parkinsons, and autism in children.

The previous year the BBC exposed a secret conference in which leading figures from the church travelled to the U.K. to promote the use of MMS, which it claims is a non-dangerous religious sacrament.

They believe that autism is caused by pathogens and parasites, which Chloride Dioxide kills. Doctors say that the claims of adherents are groundless, the solution is untested and can cause serious harm.

The solution includes two chemicals – sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid – that combine to make bleach. It is sold to be used orally or as an enema.

Proponents recommend mixing it with a fruit juice, but medical experts warn that this causes the solution to acidify and produce chlorine dioxide – a potentially lethal bleach used for stripping textiles.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that the product “used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.” It is banned in Canada.

The British Food Standards Authority warns against use of MMS, and says it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, reduced blood pressure, damage the gut or cause respiratory failure.

There has been one death linked to use of MMS and several cases of those taking it reporting serious injuries.

However, the substance remains available to buy on the internet.

Dr Jeff Foster warned of the potentially deadly consequences of using MMS.

“Autism is a neuro-developmental disease which is not amenable to any form of tablet treatment. ‘It’s developed in the womb or early stages of life. ‘You can’t just reverse it and anyone claiming that does not understand the condition,” he told the People.

"When you have very extreme measures like this to “cure” a condition it’s just a roulette game,’ Dr Foster said. ‘

"Eventually someone will die. It’s only a matter of time."

A British parliamentiary commission focussed on autism is expected to tighten the laws around MMS.

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets yesterday, protesting a wave of acid attacks against women across the country in recent weeks.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the parliament building in Tehran, and thousands more in Isfahan City, where at least six women are believed to have suffered acid attacks in the last few weeks.

As many as 25 women have been targeted around the country. On Sunday it was reported that one of the victims had died of her injuries.

At least two acid attack survivors attended the Isfahan protest, as well as several prominent Iranian human rights activists.

One female protester who had herself been disfigured in an acid attack carried a sign that read "where is my face". Another bore the slogan "a secure street is my right”. Others targeted religious zealots and extremists, while chants of “Death to the Daesh [Islamic State] school of thought!” were heard, according to local media.

Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a New York based NGO, believes that the women were targeted for violating Islamic dress codes, and linked the surge in attacks to recent rhetoric from conservative leaders.

“This comes in the midst of a year-long verbal attack by conservative forces in Iran attacking women for their clothes,” Ghaemi told Newsweek. “There have been verbal warnings and calls that blood must be shed. These are not isolated incidents”, he added.

Iranian women are required by law to cover themselves in public with an enveloping head-to-toe veil. However many of them, especially younger women living in the larger cities, defy government regulations and societal convention by showing their hair or wearing supposedly “immodest” clothing.

It is common for Iranian police to caution women seen in public places sporting so-called “bad hijab”, a term which encompasses any veil offering less coverage than the traditional head-to-toe covering, the chador. The conservative lawmakers who dominate Iran’s parliament recently proposed a law which would allow vigilante patrols to carry out similar policing according to the Islamic principle of “enjoining good and forbidding wrong”.

Although the protesters in Isfahan obtained the necessary government permit, police used tear gas to break up the demonstration. Following the protest, several activists were detained and taken into custody.

Some human rights activists blame the empowering of conservative vigilante groups for the spike in acid attacks, either directly or indirectly.

According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, up to 25 women across the country have been targeted in a recent wave of attacks. They recounted one of the incidents in Isfahan in a statement posted to their website earlier this week:

“[A] young woman was walking with two others when they [became the] target of an acid attack. The young woman died due to injuries received on her chest but the two others who received injuries in their faces and hands were transferred to hospital”, the report said.

The victims of this “heinous crime”, it added, “have suffered major injuries and are in danger of losing their eyesight.” Local media outlets reported that the attacks were carried out by men on motorbikes who were unknown to the victims.

In a separate incident in the same city, 26-year-old Soheila Jorkesh was driving a car when a motorbike drove past and one of the riders tipped acid through the open window. As well as suffering horrific burns, she has lost the sight from one eye while doctors are battling to save the other.

Hadi Ghaemi is clear that the surge in attacks is no coincidence, saying that the incidents represent a break from usual trends associated with a practice largely aligned with personal grudges and family honour.

Acid attacks, he said, are usually committed by “jealous boyfriends, husbands and family members, but there is no way that so many attacks in such a short space of time can be explained by personal revenge, it makes no rational sense.”

One of the groups which advertised the protests on its Facebook page referred to the perpetrators as “Iranian regime agents”, while several protesters chanted "we know who's throwing acid at our women - it's government agents".

Although “three or four” suspects have reportedly been arrested in connection with the Esfahan attacks, Iranian authorities have refused to comment on any potential motivations for the crime.