Pseudoscientific Cancer ‘Cure’ Involves Gassing Naked People In Plastic Bags With Bleach
The clinic is inside London, run by a former artisanal ice cream maker, treats stage 4 cancer patients using a method that involves encasing them, naked from the neck down, in a plastic bag while being treated with oxidizing industrial bleach chlorine dioxide—a treatment that even its owner admits is “dangerous.”
Alastair Jessel, who works at the Battersea Park Clinic in south London, spoke earlier this month on a popular podcast about those who believe that chlorine dioxide is a miracle drug that can be used to treat everything from cancer and HIV to Covid-19 and autism.
“Having naked people in the bag, maybe in a clinical setting is what a lot of doctors have to deal with, but as an entrepreneur sitting in front of a naked person in front of me is something I wouldn’t have planned to do in the last few years, but what it’s accomplished has been really amazing,” Jessel told a chlorine dioxide-focused podcast earlier this month.
A typical “protocol” sees users ingest a few drops of chlorine dioxide solution every day. Jessel directs a different, little-used “protocol” first developed by Andreas Kalcker, a German man who has been one of the main developers of the bleach-like solution in recent decades. The treatment involves encasing naked people in a plastic bag from the neck down before directly exposing them to an undiluted form of chlorine dioxide gas.
Jesse said on the podcast that he asked a private message group of other chlorine dioxide advocates if anyone had tried Kalcker’s so-called Protocol G, and no one responded.
“Protocol G is, obviously, the most dangerous piece of legislation of all,” Jessel said, adding: “Nobody has done it before. So I don’t know if I’m the first person in the UK to do it, but I’m definitely a rare one.”
Writing about the use of Protocol G on his website, Kalcker does not discuss cancer treatment. “When used correctly, with specific caution to avoid inhaling the vapor, it’s a well-tolerated procedure,” Kalcker tells WIRED, dismissing Jessel’s description of the treatment as dangerous. While he won’t comment on the effectiveness of this treatment for all cancers, he says that for skin cancer, Protocol G “will work directly.”
“There is currently no scientific evidence that exposure to chlorine dioxide is a safe or effective treatment for people with cancer,” said Caroline Geraghty, senior nurse at Cancer Research UK. “Taking unproven treatments or cancer remedies instead of medically approved ones can affect the course of treatment and have dangerous side effects. It’s incredibly important that people talk to their oncologist, doctor, or nurse specialist before trying other treatments.”
Jessel did not answer a detailed list of questions, he simply wrote, “I can only refer you to protocol G in Dr. Andreas Kalcker’s book. The Forbidden Life. That’s all I do.”
For decades, pseudoscience grifters have been selling chlorine dioxide solutions—sold under various names such as Miracle Mineral Solution—as “cures” for various diseases and disorders. There is no physical evidence to support any of these claims.
However, in the past year, there has been a resurgence of interest in chlorine dioxide after US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned chlorine dioxide when asked about President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed during his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2025. Then, last year, the Food and Drug Administration removed a warning about the substance from its website. Although the organization says the removal was part of the process of archiving old pages on its site, it has had the effect of emboldening the community.
