Amazon has been criticised for hosting sales of products that make “grotesque” claims that they can cure or treat cancer.
Products available through the online retailer at Amazon.co.uk, sold by third parties, included a listing for organic Indian Madder powder, sold as a “blood purifier”, another for dried crocodile blood and another for apricot kernels. They claim to “relieve cancer”, “destroy tumors [sic]” or “give cancer cells a hard time”.
None has any scientific evidence to back up the claims, meaning that they fall foul of medicine regulations as well as the Cancer Act 1939, which bans advertisements of any would-be cancer treatment.
David Colquhoun, Professor of Pharmacology at University College London, said: “The claims are quite grotesque. The real danger is that people will