Influencers are using Hawking Wellness products in response to the Los Angeles fires

This story is original appeared on Mother Jones It is part of Climate Office cooperation.

As wildfires continue to burn throughout Los Angeles, influencers have emerged to promote sales of their very specific solutions to the crisis. As smoke filled the air of many neighborhoods, the wellness machine sprang into action, promoting tinctures, detox products, essential oils, parasite cleanses, and even raw milk as “cures” for its effects.

The fires began in earnest on Tuesday, January 7. By Thursday, two days later, Mallory DeMille, a reporter, said Conspiratorial She says she noticed an “instant influx” of people promoting products on Instagram and TikTok by trying to link them to the fires. DeMille says the situation is “truly heartbreaking and irresponsible.”

In a Latest Instagram videoDeMille outlined the ways in which health influencers are trying to, as she puts it, “capitalize” on wildfires and their potential negative health effects. Many are focusing on the effect of wildfire smoke on people’s lungs, and suggesting potential “treatments,” including nutritional supplements, powders and essential oils, along with often-cited “detox” tools like drinking apple cider vinegar or taking activated charcoal.

While activated charcoal is used in emergency situations to relieve ingested toxins, there is no evidence that it can “detox” the lungs or any other part of the body. It can also decrease The effectiveness of the drug. In general, you do not need body organs To be “detoxed” Or “fortified” with nutritional supplements and some It can cause additional damage.

One ardent detox influencer, Ginger Declo — who gives webinars on detox and describes herself as a “master healer” — suggested on Instagram that Los Angeles deserved its fate. “Whatever burns must burn,” she said in a video promoting the idea that the city was filled with toxic mold.

“Los Angeles has been a nest of evil, sexual assault, child abuse, overpriced, moldy apartments and buildings with no HVAC maintenance. Bad storefronts and hollyWEIRD since 1920.” I wrote. “God does not like what is ugly in one night, so He promises to destroy evil and bring back the righteous.”

Some of the advice promoted by influencers and doctors using social media included commonsense, low-risk strategies that public health departments also recommend: using an air purifier at home, saline nasal spray to help with irritation and congestion, and wearing high-quality clothing. Quality outdoor masks.

But many are promoting products they have financial incentives to recommend, DeMille says, and offering discount codes for products they already sold before the fires. “How do you know you can trust them with your health and wellness,” she asks, “if they have a financial motive to sell you products and services?”

What is happening with the bushfires is similar to the bogus treatments and “detoxifications” offered during the Covid pandemic. Essential oils It has been upgraded As an “immune support” for people trying to prevent Covid, a huge range of non-evidenced products have emerged for people who want to “detox” from the effects of Covid vaccines or be around people who have been vaccinated. (Vaccines detoxify It has been promoted by some in the alternative wellness world Even before Covid.)

“Health influencers always capitalize on tragedies, but they’re usually personal tragedies,” DeMille points out, for example, when they ask patients to try their products while undergoing treatment for cancer or chronic diseases.

“It doesn’t take long to profit from a community tragedy,” she adds.

As climate disasters continue to occur more frequently — and the world faces a new potential pandemic in the form of bird flu — business is looking very good for health influencers who are skilled at turning illnesses and disasters into marketing hooks.