FDA removes webpage warning against unproven autism treatments

Advertisement

The FDA has removed a consumer webpage warning about products falsely marketed as autism treatments, according to a ProPublica Feb. 18 report. 

HHS said it retired the page “during a routine clean up of dated content at the end of 2025,” stating it had not been updated since 2019. 

The page, which the FDA pulled down last year, cited products including chelating agents, hyperbaric oxygen therapies, chlorine dioxide and raw camel milk as examples of treatments being deceptively marketed to treat autism. An archived version of the page remains available online, according to the report. 

The FDA has urged consumers since at least 2010 not to purchase or drink chlorine dioxide, frequently marketed as “miracle mineral solution,” warning that when mixed, it develops into a “dangerous bleach” that has caused “serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.”

Zoe Gross, a director at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said the warnings remain necessary because people are still being targeted by sellers of chelation and chlorine dioxide. 

“Those can both kill people,” she said.

The removal aligns with broader shifts under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including changes to federal autism advisory panels. HHS said claims that the reconfigured autism panel is dominated by individuals using anti-vaccine rhetoric are false, according to the report.

Advertisement

Next Up in Government & Regulation

Advertisement