Below is a response to an article that Cynthia stumbled across on the Web:
www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/gulfleak-from-crude-oil-to-snake-oil
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<correction: I swear that when I first read her article it was credited to Deborah Dupree, however her actual family name seems to be Dupré. My apologies, Bruce>
I hope that this will get to Deborah Dupree, as it's regarding her recent article "Crude oil, Corexit and now, Snake Oil to fix it" on Examiner.com. If Deborah is reading this, I apologize for speaking of her in the third person.
In my opinion, this article is full of false information, half-truths, and aspersions based on an incomplete understanding of the science around so-called MMS/sodium chlorite solution.
In the first place, sodium chlorite (NaClO2) is not "Pool Shock," and has never been used for that purpose to my knowledge. The pool shock that is starting to be propagandized against, by people who seem to be associated with the Big Pharma/FDA quasi-official campaign against the use of sodium chlorite (I would argue because of its effectiveness against a wide range of challenges to human wellness), is calcium hypochlorite [Ca(ClO)2], aka MMS2. Calcium Hypochlorite becomes hypochlorous acid when put in solution in water, and is taken up and used by white blood cells in dissolving the foreign particles they absorb. Thus, Ca(ClO)2, though putatively a "pool shock," aids the immune system in its effectiveness when taken internally in small amounts. However, I digress.
If Deborah Dupree intends to use her no-doubt extensive scientific background for the good of humanity, instead of adding to the fear and suffering experienced in places like the Gulf region, she will need to do some research on the chemistries she's writing about. In particular, take a deep look at the remarkable and unique characteristics of Chlorine Dioxide.
The statement quoted from nurse Patricia Springstead, "The historical fact of MMS is, that when, activated, it becomes what is equal to pool shock, to shock bacteria, fungus and other pathogens from swimming water," is entirely specious, as one might expect someone with a Masters of Science to recognize. In actuality, as Dupree might have informed us accurately, sodium chlorite, when activated with a weak food acid, releases Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2), used not as "what is equal to pool shock," but as a water purifier in municipal water-treatment facilities across America, and as a disinfectant approved for spraying without needing to be rinsed off, on vegetables and meat before sale.
What is the point of including quotes from Springstead like "Would you want to ingest pool water that you swim in on a daily basis?" in this article? Does the distaste invoked have anything to do with the effectiveness or danger of a particular chemical?
Anecdotal and questionable assertions are made throughout this article. While Dupree quotes health consultant Jonathan Campbell regarding MMS's "destruction" of amino acid and "sulfurous" (sic) bonds, she might, with a short investigation on Google, have found a study published by the EPA in 1982 when chlorine dioxide was first considered for use in municipal water purification, entitled "Controlled Clinical Evaluations of Chlorine Dioxide, Chlorite and Chlorate in Man" - (
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1569027/pdf/envhper00463-0059.pdf) - which found 12 weeks of exposure to the 50 subjects who actually received chlorine dioxide or its metabolites "failed to reveal any clinically important impact upon the medical well-being of any subject as a result of disinfectant ingestion."
Interestingly, also in 1982, the first of three patents was issued for the use of sodium chlorite internally in humans for blood purification. One would suspect that, to attain such a patent, the authors would have had to demonstrate the harmlessness of the substance.
And it is reliably (I think) estimated that by now in excess of 250 thousand people, mostly in Africa, have been freed from the suffering of Malaria through the use of MMS. Jim Humble's book "Breakthrough, The Miracle Mineral Supplement of the 21st Century" has sold an equivalent number of hard-copies or copies of the electronic version of Part II, meaning that many tens of thousands of people have probably used MMS to one extent or another based on what they read. And yet, after years of use of the product by thousands of people, even considering that many people haven't clearly understood its proper use, there is at this point only ONE (highly contested) claim of a fatality from its use.
Compare this to the sordid record of commercial pharmaceuticals (conservatively estimated at over 200,000 a year) in America alone, without a hue and cry for "responsibility to protect vulnerable people...from...those pushing them." This fear-mongering may shortly result in the "recall" of sodium chlorite due to its "danger" by an FDA newly re-empowered by the recently passed "Food Safety Modernization Act."
Crucially, Dupree makes a major mistake in quoting health consultant Campbell's statement that "CLO2 cannot differentiate healthy tissue from diseased tissue." Of course, the molecule cannot make such a distinction itself, but one of the vital unique properties of chlorine dioxide is that it has a low Oxygen Reduction Potential of 950 millivolts, lower than any other oxidizing agent used in the body (the ORP of ozone is 2,070 mv). Because of this, ClO2 will only draw electrons from the field of weakly bonded molecules, and will consequently NOT hurt healthy tissues. It will only act against pathogens - anaerobic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi, and also against toxins and heavy-metal compounds lodged in tissues, which tend to surrender electrons easily.
MMS is not necessarily easy to use. For chronic conditions (unlike Malaria, which is eliminated in about 4 hours) it requires an understanding of its chemistry, and of how to support the health of the body while using it (for instance, it's important to stay hydrated and to use anti-oxidants appropriately). However, when understood, it is, because of its unique properties, a safe and effective answer to many health issues that have, until now, been intractable or dangerous to deal with.
In the case of the massively tragic Gulf oil disaster, we have a situation where perhaps millions of people have been exposed to toxins that have now been stored as compounds in their tissues, where they can continue to cause health crises indefinitely. When chlorine dioxide first starts to act in a body that is very toxic, it quickly breaks up a lot of material that then must be flushed from the body before what's dumped into the bloodstream can cause a detoxification reaction known as a Herxheimer reaction. If too much is released into the bloodstream too fast, this reaction takes the form of occasionally severe headache, nausea, sweating, or diarrhea as the body struggles to clear itself out. Simply backing off on the intake of MMS can bring the reactions down to where it isn't unbearable. Remember, the goal with people who have ingested dangerous loads of toxins is to clean them out. While a detox reaction can be unpleasant, it can be mitigated by careful monitoring of dosages.
Dupree quotes Dr. Rodney Soto, a doctor working in the Gulf as saying "No toxins are a 'safe level' of toxins." While, if we're talking about persistent chemicals that are entirely foreign to our biology, this is essentially true, it's patently false when talking about substances that are bio-compatible. For instance, an excessive amount of table salt or water can be fatal, but no one is going to label them as toxins. When it comes to the dosages involved with MMS, we're talking about fractions of a milligram per pound of body weight! For instance, a "6-drop" dose of activated MMS will provide at most 0.225 to 0.45 mg (depending on drop size) of chlorine dioxide per pound of body weight in a 120 pound person. Tests for toxicity in rats on which many of the extreme claims about the toxicity of chlorine dioxide are based, involved amounts above 10 mg per pound up to 100 mg per pound, and in some cases the ClO2 was put in the water the rats drank throughout their lives. And even then, the developmental problems suffered by rat pups were not life-threatening.
To cite just one more obvious comparison, chemo-therapy drugs for treating cancer are severely toxic, yet supposedly responsible doctors prescribe them to immune-compromised people every day.
Reliable witnesses inside the FDA have stated that the agency has been studying the therapeutic uses of sodium chlorite since at least 2003. After all that time, and in the face of a distinct threat to the profits of their masters, the Pharmaceutical Industry, the worst that FDA can come up with to attack this valuable bio-purifier with is that it causes understandable reactions as it helps the body to release toxins, and that it can contribute to preventable dehydration. Considering this, how can we understand the vehemence of the developing campaigns against MMS? Do you, Deborah, want to contribute to a pogrom against a simple chemical that potentially promises a massive improvement in human health, conceivably in the very near future?
