Bleach toxic, but some Americans still drinking it

Enter the term “Miracle Mineral Solution” into the search bar on Amazon.com, and, sure enough, there's a wide selection of products that online reviewers say cure everything from asthma to arthritis.

The problem is that the cure-all potion commonly known as MMS is, in essence, industrial grade bleach. And selling this toxic and sometimes deadly chemical concoction as medicine is illegal.

“It is designed to kill bacteria, pathogens, germs,” said Richard Parsons, a toxicologist at King's College London. “It will do that to human tissue.”

One part sodium chlorite, a chemical disinfectant, and one part acid, MMS has been around since the '90s. It shot up in popularity in 2020 after former president Donald Trump floated disinfectant as a possible COVID treatment. The idea was swiftly debunked, but existing sellers seized on the global attention, catapulting a fringe operation into a big business where sellers on mainstream shopping sites like Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Poshmark openly hawk the stuff.

And some sellers minted millions: One of the largest was a church, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, run by a family whose rise and fall is the subject of Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure, a new podcast by Bloomberg, Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment.

The Grenons became one of the best-known sellers of MMS, marketing the bleach solution through their church as a sort of religious sacrament. After Trump's initial bleach comments, court documents show the family's monthly sales of the product more than tripled to about $120,000.

The family produced the bleaching agent out of their house and sold the solution via their website. They published a book and launched a podcast, YouTube channel and a newsletter. Sales skyrocketed past $1 million, according to a federal indictment of the Grenons, which led to criminal charges.

Their trial is scheduled for later this year, but the Grenons continue to tout MMS from their prison cells via the messaging app Telegram.

Amazon told Bloomberg sales of MMS are prohibited. “We have proactive measures in place to prevent this product from being sold, and we continuously monitor our store,” a spokesperson said.

But several sellers remain on the site, under the guise of product descriptions like “chlorine dioxide kit.” Other online retailers hawking versions of MMS, including Etsy, eBay and Poshmark, removed listings after being contacted by Bloomberg News, citing violations of company policies.

Part of the reason that sales of MMS are so hard to quash is that while selling unproven treatments as medicine is illegal, it's perfectly legal to buy and sell the ingredients that make up MMS. Many MMS sellers avoid running afoul of regulators by listing the stuff as water purification solutions rather than health aids, even sometimes citing FDA warnings about consumption in the listing fine print.