If you’re looking for a book that will tell you all the potentially dangerous things you can do to “cure” someone’s autism, you’re not going to be able to shop Amazon. The company announced Tuesday evening it is pulling several such texts from its store, following a report by Wired.
The books highlighted in that report, Healing the Symptoms Known As Autism and Fight Autism and Win, claim that autism can be treated using pseudoscientific and potentially dangerous methods. There is no known cure for autism. From Wired:
One book, Healing the Symptoms Known As Autism, instructs parents in how to make chlorine dioxide — a bleach-like substance that is sometimes marketed as “Miracle Mineral Solution.” Although the substance has never been scientifically verified as a treatment for any condition, an Amazon search for “Miracle Mineral Solution” turns up more than 25 books extolling its supposed benefits.
Healing the Symptoms Known As Autism retailed for $28. The FDA, however, has different things to say about this so-called “miracle.” (The initial Wired report found at least 25 books referencing it.) It says chlorine bleach can cause “severe nausea, vomiting and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration.” According to the book, some 191 children have allegedly been “cured” with this treatment.
Amazon did not provide any information on why these particular books were removed or if more will be removed in the near future, NBC News also reports. Earlier in March, the company was revealed to have tacitly endorsed anti-vax organizations after a report from the Guardian found the company allowed shoppers to donate, via AmazonSmile, parts of their purchase proceeds to organizations including the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Learn the Risk, and Age of Autism. All of these organizations are opposed to vaccinations.
