SPOKANE — Two people from Oregon and two from Washington have been charged with selling an ingredient for bleach online as a cure-all for arthritis, cancer and the flu.
An indictment unsealed in federal court in Spokane Tuesday charges 42-year-old Louis Daniel Smith and 38-year-old Karis Delong, both of Ashland, Ore., as well as 49-year-old Chris Olson and 50-year-old Tammy Olson, both of Nine Mile Falls.
Prosecutors say they were involved in a business called Project GreenLife, which imported sodium chlorite from Canada, and that they sold the chemical online as a “miracle mineral supplement.” Buyers were instructed to mix it with orange juice or other source of citric acid before drinking it.
Mixing sodium chlorite with citric acid makes chlorine dioxide — a powerful bleach. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured by consuming it.