Suppliers have been selling bleach as a remedy for coronavirus during the pandemic, a BBC investigation found.
Secret recordings of two sellers revealed potentially dangerous mixtures were being touted as a way to treat people with Covid-19.
One claimed her sales had increased following comments made by US President Donald Trump about the potential use of disinfectant as a treatment.
She told the BBC her “health-related products” did not cause harm.
Ann Gylman from near Holland Park in west London was one of the sellers exposed by the BBC undercover investigation.
She sold researchers, who were posing as having relatives who had contracted the virus, bottles of sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid, which were labelled as Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS).
They were told to combine the products to form a bleach-based solution which they should use for three weeks as a remedy against the virus.
“When it goes brown and smelly, after about 30 seconds put some water in it and drink it. Like a shot of whisky or something,” Ms Gylman said.
Ann Gylman claimed her sales increased after comments made by the US president about disinfectant
In April, President Trump was heavily criticised by medical professionals after he suggested injecting disinfectant to treat coronavirus.
He later told reporters he took no responsibility for a spike in calls in the US about taking disinfectant and had been speaking “sarcastically”.
When asked about the US president’s comments, Ms Gylman said: “He’s intelligent and he cares.
“He knows the monopoly. He understands the monopoly that the pharmaceutical industry has had selling drugs and making people sick.
“We were very famous before Trump. What Trump is doing for us, he will stop the media harassing us.”
In a separate conversation she claimed her orders for MMS, which had been taking place for a number of years, had also gone up since the president’s comments, adding that: “I think every household should have MMS, always and particularly now”.
Another seller, Leon Edwards, also sold researchers bottles of MMS and urged them to mix the two.
“What it does is it cleans up the area, it destroys the certain proteins that the virus use to survive in the body,” he said.
He previously featured in another BBC investigation, advocating the same solution for treating cancer and autism.
Leon Edwards featured in a previous BBC investigation where he sold bleach to an undercover reporter as a cure for autism
The bottles purchased by the BBC were analysed by independent laboratory Kent Scientific Services which found potentially dangerous levels of the chemicals that could cause adverse health effects.
“Consuming these will not cure coronavirus if you have the disease and have the symptoms… As a cleaning agent sodium chlorite will certainly help disinfecting surfaces and would kill the virus but if you consumed it, no – it would do you more harm than it would good,” said scientist Jon Griffin from the laboratory.
Mr Edwards and Ms Gylman have both been previously linked to the Genesis II Church, an American organisation that describes itself as a “non-religious church of health and healing” and which has been behind many of the sales of MMS.
The BBC made contact with the two vendors, who did not advertise the products, after receiving information they were selling them.
Mr Edwards did not respond to the allegations in the BBC report.
Ms Gylman said she only supplied the “health related products” to friends and acquaintances and they did not cause harm.
She denied profiting from the outbreak or claiming anyone could be cured from coronavirus. She also denied it was a business with any marketing and said she was not linked to the Genesis II Church.
