Peroxide Treatment Could Be Lethal, Officials Warn

City and state officials warned Wednesday against consumption of a purported treatment for AIDS, cancer and other diseases that is primarily concentrated hydrogen peroxide.

The clear liquid has been distributed for an unknown length of time by a mom-and-pop San Diego firm whose principals were arrested on 59 misdemeanor charges more than a month ago.

Two government agencies warned in a news release that the substance could cause “bleeding of the esophagus and stomach and even death if consumed undiluted, as might happen were a child to mistake the containers for food and drink. The containers have no resistant closures to prevent against accidental consumption.”

Officials are unsure how widely the “oxidative therapy” drug was sold by the Oasis Purewater Co. of San Diego, but believe that it was marketed nationwide via direct mail and advertising in some health magazines, according to officials in the San Diego city attorney’s office and the state Department of Health Services Food and Drug branch.

Richard and Marian Chieppo were arrested Nov. 22 in connection with bottling and distributing the product, said Tricia Johnson, a deputy city attorney with the city’s Consumer Fraud Unit. The couple was charged with 59 misdemeanor counts, including selling an unapproved drug, mislabeling a product, and adulterating the product in its preparation, Johnson said.

The Chieppos, who were arraigned and released on their own recognizance, face six months in jail and $1,000 fines for each charge, Johnson said. They could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Johnson said her agency delayed its consumer warning for more than a month because she did not realize the possible health hazards of consuming hydrogen peroxide until receiving a bulletin last week from the federal Food and Drug Administration. The product sold by Oasis Purewater is 35% hydrogen peroxide.

“I didn’t realize how dangerous it could be” until reading the federal bulletin, Johnson said. The bulletin described an adult who “had mistaken hydrogen peroxide for water and had literally served it to a child, and the child died, and others had been seriously injured,” she said.

Literature distributed with the product explains how to dilute it for “oxidative therapy,” a purported treatment of AIDS, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, according to the news release.

But Johnson and Ingeborg Small, senior food and drug investigator for the state Food and Drug branch, said that the product should not be consumed and should be disposed of. For information on proper disposal, consumers can call the food and drug agency at 237-7579.