“Parents hold their child down – three of them holding them down – and give this stuff as an enema,” says Emma Dalmayne. “Many feed it to their children. They even put it into their babies’ bottles.”

Dalmayne, a stay-at-home mother and autism campaigner from London, is describing Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), a “supplement” being sold online to parents as a “cure” for their autistic children. But MMS is essentially bleach. It is 28% sodium chlorite, and when used as instructed, generates chlorine dioxide – a potent bleach that’s used to strip textiles and for industrial water treatment.

It is highly dangerous to ingest. Taken directly, MMS can cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, damage to the gut and red blood cells, respiratory problems, and can be fatal. “MMS can cause serious damage to health and in some cases even death,” says a spokeswoman for the Food Standards Agency (FSA). “Anyone who has bought these products is advised to throw them away.”

Dalmayne – who has two children with autism and three others under assessment for diagnosis, and has autism herself – first became aware of the fake cures in 2014, after setting up an autism support group online. “Parents would ask me, have you seen this? Isn’t it awful? Or, does it work?” she says. Over the past 18 months, the 40-year-old has found dozens of websites selling MMS under the guise of curing autism, as well as GcMAF, an unlicensed product derived from blood plasma that claims to treat autism as well as cancer and HIV.

There are no figures on how widespread the manufacture and use of fake autism cures are in the UK, but the FSA says local authorities have made it aware of a number of cases where MMS has been marketed for sale. And the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency confirms it is investigating GcMAF products after it found manufacturing conditions were “unacceptable” and the material “unsuitable for human use”. Last year, more than 10,000 vials of GcMAF were seized at a production site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, with the product being sold on various European websites that UK citizens may have bought from.



Kerri Rivera, a prominent proponent of MMS and author of Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism, says: “Almost all of the people with autism have high levels of pathogens; virus, bacteria, parasites and heavy metals. Chlorine dioxide kills pathogens and helps the body to detoxify itself. It is considered safe at doses we use for weight.” She adds: “There are over 225 people who no longer have autism after using it.”

The National Autistic Society (NAS), which has repeatedly warned about GcMAF and MMS, is running a Google advertising campaign that directs anyone searching for these products online to its own accurate information. Sarah Lambert, NAS’s head of policy, says: “Not only is there no verified scientific evidence for these so-called cures, but any autistic adult or child using them risks serious harm.”

Carol Povey, director of NAS’s Centre for Autism, says: “We know how difficult life can be for families affected by autism, particularly just before and after diagnosis when there’s so much uncertainty and, in some cases, no understanding or support from public services and people around them. Some families end up feeling so isolated and disillusioned that they’re desperate for anything that might help, which can leave them vulnerable to the dangerous claims of quacks and charlatans.”

'Some post photos of bleeding children … It’s like parents are going to war with their own offspring’ Emma Dalmayne

Dalmayne has discovered a Facebook group for parents of autistic children – many from the UK – that’s centred on these “cures”. With the tagline “Solving the puzzle one drop at a time”, the more than 9,000 members of the group discuss using chlorine dioxide, often posting photos of their children with skin rashes and bleeding – “bragging” that it’s a sign it’s working or asking for help when they’re afraid.

“People post, ‘my child can’t walk because she’s/he’s doubled up in pain’ or ‘their urine’s pink’,” Dalmayne says. “One had three seizures in a day. But they’re always told by the other members, ‘That’s normal. That’s the autism leaving them.’” The people being given the “solution”, who are discussed in the group, range from vulnerable adults to children as young as 10 months, Dalmayne tells me. “It’s like they’re going to war with their own children,” she says.

In 2015, Dalmayne created a fake profile – Anna Smith – to infiltrate the group, posing as a mother wanting to use MMS on her daughter. For eight months, she formed relationships with members and passed information on to the police and social services (she had to stop when group administrators noticed people “Anna” had been speaking to were being contacted by the police).

And last month, she reported a suspected case in London. Police are making inquiries. Although the FSA’s food crime unit is working with councils and government departments to combat the promotion and sale of MMS, Dalmayne says the law needs to be changed. While it is unlawful to sell a product such as MMS that is injurious to health, “you can say, ‘this is a cure for autism’ – and right now there’s nothing we can do about it”, she says. She is campaigning with Change.org for the government to introduce legislation to ban the marketing of products to the public based on the false claim it will cure autism, as is already the case with alleged remedies for cancer.

“This is child abuse. It’s happening in the UK right now,” she says.