Bleachgate: More on MMS in the UK

Hello again all!

Well, I’ve been rather busy over the past week. A lot has happened since I last blogged.

Last Thursday, I went and listened to the response to my public question to Cardiff Council about Trading Standards and MMS. Thank you to @JohnLDixon for all the help with doing this. The response was brilliant. Basically, Trading Standards in Cardiff ARE still looking into my complaint. They’re “not avoiding any responsibilities”. I was told the problem needs to be tackled nationally. The deputy leader of Cardiff Council, Ms Judith Woodman, who responded to my question, also promised to write to the chief medical officer in Wales about it. The South Wales Echo came to meet me beforehand, did an interview with me and took a lot of photos. The article can be found here!

Then… On Friday, the 24th September, Bleachgate went official.

The Food Standards Agency released a warning about it, in a similar vein to the FDA’s announcement. This was picked up by the BBC and various other websites.

On Monday, I was sitting in my physics lesson when the Ms. Humphreys from the school office came in and said to me that Radio 4 wanted to do an interview. I agreed and this is the result… http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/txzlq/

The rest of the day went by almost normally, until my chemistry lesson in the afternoon. My school principal, Mr. Dorey, was waiting outside. He pointed towards me and said “Don’t think you’re getting away with it that easily!” I was confused and thought I was in trouble, until he congratulated me on my Radio 4 appearance. He then told me that the day was going to get even more surreal, as BBC Radio Wales had contacted him and wanted to do an interview with me. They wanted to do a live interview at 5:30, but unfortunately, I had other plans for after school – another newspaper article in the Echo, more on that in a minute – so wasn’t able to do a live interview. However, the host of “Good Evening Wales”, Adrian Masters, came to my school and interviewed me. Since the program is quite long (2 hours), you might want to skip to the relevant bits. The first interview with me is at roughly 17 minutes. The next part about Bleachgate is an interview with the FSA which confirms once and for all that Miracle Mineral Solution is illegal. This comes roughly at 1 hour 16 minutes.

All this publicity is excellent. Thanks to all who signed up to the Google spreadsheet to complain about MMS Health and various other MMS peddlers to Trading Standards. As it happens, they are already investigating… er… ALL MMS sellers in the UK due to the FSA complaining to a number of the relevant Trading Standards bodies.

I mentioned earlier about another newspaper article in the South Wales Echo. They were meant to come and do an interview and photos on Monday of this week, but due to a last minute meeting, were unable to come. However, they will be coming and doing the interview on Tuesday, so all is not lost. Follow me on Twitter @rhysmorgan and I’ll let you all know when it’ll be in and if the article is available online or not.

Thanks for the help. Without your retweets about the blog and the video, this could have just been pushed under the carpet.

– Rhys

Published by Rhys

Computer Science graduate, from Oxford Brookes University. Originally from Cardiff.

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8 Comments

  1. Rhys, Thank You and congratulations on catching this scam in action and making it so visible.

    I just listened to the Jim Humble interview and it is chilling what he is doing to unsuspecting victims. I had just listened to your interview earlier in the day and been both impressed with your concise account and the potential for harm in MMS, so I thought I knew what was coming, but I had no idea what a self serving charlatan “Bishop” Humble would turn out to be. I felt sick to my stomach listening to him.

    I know you are going to get even more criticized and attacked in the future — you are threatening the revenue of some rather ruthless people — but hang in there. You are doing good, and you are an inspiration for a whole generation of skeptical kids growing up right now. Not only are you exposing MMS and saving lives, but you are also showing others what a tool the net can be against quackery and ignorance.

    I’m going to show my son (10 years old) what you have been doing so that he can gain inspiration from it too, and I’m sure there are countless other young kids reading this and seeing how they can make a difference.

  2. Rhys, you are a hero!!!
    If I ever meet you I’m going to kiss you!

    (But, beware, some people might not like what you’re doing. If someone threatens you or try to shut you up, go to the police. There are a lot of bad people out there).

    Pernille Nylehn

  3. Hey Rhys

    I’ve just read about you on Metafilter. Excellent work! I wish you the best of luck with your fight against MMS, and of course, I hope you eventually find the cure for your condition that started you down this road. Don’t let the quacks and loonies get you down, there are many, many more people out there who respect and value your fight.

    Good luck!

    Mark

  4. Good young sir, I came via Pharyngula and just wanted to say thank you for bothering to… be “annoying” to these horrible people 😀 You’re an inspiration. May you have a prosperous future.

  5. Well done Rhys! Just saw you on BBC’s One Show, fantastic job mate! Beware though, your google ads have pulled up an actual advert for MMS on your blog, is there any way you can get them off the site? Keep up the good work man! x x

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