More than a hundred people went on Saturday to a conference organized by farmer and activist Josep Pàmies, and which had been banned by the Department of Health, on the use of sodium chlorite (MMS) to cure autism.
Pámies has justified the conference, in charge of Gregorio Placeres, because "the treatment of autism is not progressing" and the people who follow the method, as he has stated, "evolve well", although he has not presented data that proves the 'affirmation. Pàmies defends that the conference is based on the rights of freedom of expression and assembly.
The Department of Health had given the order to suspend the event on Thursday because there are no curative treatments for autism and there is no study that supports the use of MMS by affected people. Salut considers that the treatment proposed by Pàmies is potentially toxic, generates false expectations and constitutes fraud.
The act, which was broadcast on the internet, has been reported to the Prosecutor's Office by the College of Doctors of Lleida. In addition, several organizations of people with autism and their families had expressed their rejection of the conference and had asked for its suspension. The associations warn that this kind of practice generates false expectations.
The speaker, Gregorio Placeres, originally from Puerto Rico, introduces himself as a chemist and defends that autism can be cured. In previous lectures and videos, he has advocated putting five drops of urine in each ear of children with autism first thing in the morning.
The Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, has warned this past week that proposing MMS to treat autism "endangers people's lives and health". He also said that Pàmies is "a fake and a scammer", qualifications for which the defender of the MMS assures that he has submitted a lawsuit to the Administrative Disputes Tribunal.
Pàmies was fined five years ago with 600,000 euros for promoting the use of MMS, a penalty that could now reach a million euros.
