This story originally appeared on Mother Jones and is part of the Climate office collaboration.
As wildfires continue to ravage Los Angeles, influencers have emerged to promote their own very specific solutions to the crisis. As smoke fills the air in many neighborhoods, the wellness machine has kicked into action, promoting tinctures, detox products, essential oils, anti-parasitic cleansers and even raw milk as “treatments” for its effects.
The fires began in earnest on Tuesday January 7. On Thursday, two days later, Mallory DeMille, correspondent for the Conspirituality podcast, says he noticed an “immediate influx” of people promoting products on Instagram and TikTok trying to tie them to the fires. The situation, DeMille said, is “heartbreaking and truly irresponsible.”
In a recent Instagram videoDeMille described how wellness influencers are “trying, as she put it, to capitalize” on wildfires and their potential negative health effects. Many focus on the impact of wildfire smoke on the lungs and suggest potential “treatments,” including supplements, powders, and essential oils, as well as oft-cited “detox” tools like drinking vinegar of apple cider or take activated charcoal.
Although activated charcoal is used in emergency situations to alleviate swallowed poisons, there is no evidence that it can “detoxify” the lungs or any other part of the body. It can also decrease the effectiveness of medications. In general, the body’s organs do not need be “detox” or “supported” by supplements, some of which can cause additional damage.
One particularly passionate detox influencer, Ginger DeClue, who offers online detox seminars and describes herself as a “master healer,” suggested on Instagram that Los Angeles deserved its fate. “Everything that burns must burn,” she said in a video post that promoted the idea that the city was permeated with toxic mold.
“Los Angeles has been a den of evil, sexual assault and child abuse, moldy, overpriced apartments and buildings with no HVAC maintenance. Crappy, hollyWEIRD storefronts since 1920,” she wrote. “God does not like the ugly, in the space of one night he promises to destroy evil: but RESTORE them RIGHTEOUS.”
Some of the tips promoted by influencers and doctors using social media include common-sense, low-risk strategies that public health departments also recommend: using an air purifier at home, a saline nasal spray for relief irritation and congestion, and wear high quality clothing. quality outdoor masks.
But many are promoting products they have financial incentives for, DeMille says, by offering discount codes for products they were already selling before the fires. “How do you know you can trust them with your health and well-being,” she asks, “if they are financially motivated to sell products and services?” »
What is happening with the wildfires is similar to the false cures and “detoxes” that have been proposed throughout the Covid pandemic. Essential oils were promoted as “immune support” for people trying to prevent Covid, and a huge number of evidence-free products have emerged for people who want to “detox” from the effects of Covid vaccines or be near people who have been vaccinated . (Vaccine detoxification has been promoted by some in the alternative wellness world even before Covid.)
“Wellness influencers always exploit tragedies,” DeMille points out, “but they’re usually personal tragedies”: for example, telling sick people to try their products while they’re undergoing cancer treatment. or a chronic illness.
“Taking advantage of a community tragedy is not a very long task,” she adds.
As climate disasters continue to occur with increasing frequency – and the world faces a potential new pandemic in the form of avian flu – business looks extremely good for wellness influencers who can transforming illnesses and disasters into marketing hooks.