Pseudoscientific Cancer ‘Treatment’ Involves Gassing Naked People in Plastic Bags With Bleach

A clinic in London, run by a former maker of artisanal ice cream, is treating patients with stage 4 cancer using a method that involves sealing them, naked from the neck down, in a plastic bag while gassing them with the oxidizing industrial bleach chlorine dioxide—a treatment that even the person administering it admits is “dangerous.”

Alastair Jessel, who operates the Battersea Park Clinic in south London, spoke earlier this month on a podcast popular among those who believe that chlorine dioxide is a miracle cure that can be used to treat everything from cancer and HIV to Covid-19 and autism.

“Having people naked in a bag, which in a clinic situation is probably what a lot of doctors have to face, but as an entrepreneur sitting in front of a naked person in front of me is something I hadn’t sort of planned on doing in the last few years, but what it’s achieving has been really quite incredible,” Jessel told a podcast focusing on chlorine dioxide earlier this month.

The typical “protocol” sees users ingest several drops of chlorine dioxide solution daily. Jessel is administering a different, little-used “protocol” first posited by Andreas Kalcker, a German man who has been one of the main boosters of the bleach-like solution in recent decades. The treatment includes sealing people naked in a plastic bag from the neck down before exposing them directly to the undiluted gaseous form of chlorine dioxide.

Jessel said in the podcast that he had asked a private messaging group of other chlorine dioxide influencers if anyone had ever tried Kalcker’s so-called Protocol G, and no one responded.

“Protocol G, obviously, is probably the most dangerous protocol out of all of them,” Jessel said, adding: “Nobody’s ever done it. So I don’t know whether I’m the first person in the UK to do it, but I’m definitely a rarity.”

Writing about Protocol G’s uses on his website, Kalcker does not mention cancer treatment. “Properly applied, with the straightforward precaution of avoiding vapor inhalation, it is a well-tolerated procedure,” Kalcker tells WIRED, dismissing Jessel’s description of the treatment as dangerous. While he will not comment on the efficacy of this treatment for all cancers, he says that in relation to skin cancer, Protocol G would be “directly relevant.”

“Currently there is no scientific evidence that chlorine dioxide gas exposure is a safe or effective treatment for people with cancer,” says Caroline Geraghty, senior specialist information nurse at Cancer Research UK. “Taking unproven treatment or remedies for cancer instead of those that are medically approved could affect how well the treatment works and have dangerous side effects. It’s incredibly important that people speak with their cancer doctor, GP, or specialist nurse before trying any alternative remedies.”

Jessel did not respond to a detailed list of questions, simply writing, “I can only refer you to protocol G in Dr Andreas Kalcker’s book Forbidden Health. That is all I do.”

For decades, pseudoscience grifters have peddled chlorine dioxide solutions—sold under a variety of names such as Miracle Mineral Solution—as “cures” for a wide variety of illnesses and disorders. There is no credible evidence to back up any of these claims.

However, over the last year, there has been a resurgence of interest in chlorine dioxide after US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned chlorine dioxide when questioned about President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed during his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2025. Then, a year ago, the Food and Drug Administration removed a warning about the substance from its website. While the agency says the removal was part of a routine process of archiving old pages on its site, it has had the effect of emboldening the bleacher community.