A controversial Melbourne alternative health clinic has been stopped from promoting itself as being able to cure or effectively treat cancer pending a Supreme Court trial for misleading and deceptive conduct.
(Media-Newswire.com) - A controversial Melbourne alternative health clinic has been stopped from promoting itself as being able to cure or effectively treat cancer pending a Supreme Court trial for misleading and deceptive conduct.
Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said an interlocutory injunction against the Hope Clinic and its director Noel Rodney Campbell prevented the clinic from continuing to claim its alternative treatments can “kill” cancer and extend the life of patients.
The state’s consumer watchdog, Consumer Affairs Victoria, alleges the Hope Clinic and Mr Campbell have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct under the Fair Trading Act 1999 by claiming the clinic’s treatments can cure cancer, prolong the lives of sufferers and are based on scientific evidence.
Consumer Affairs Victoria alleges the Hope Clinic’s “complementary treatments and therapies” are extremely unlikely to provide any of these purported benefits to cancer sufferers.
The questionable therapies include:
• Photodynamic Therapy, using a special light and ingested chlorine-based photo-sensitisers;
• Radiowave and Microwave Therapies, involving the application of ultra-high frequency radio wave to affect parts of the body in combination with glucose-blocking agents;
• Ozone Therapy, administered via saunas, cupping and insufflation;
• Electrotherapy, determining and raising the electrical frequencies of cancer cells;
• Neuron-immunology, using chemicals from the brain to affect the immune system;
• Insulin Potentiation, implementing insulin with chemo-therapy drugs;
• Sono-dynamic therapy; using low-level ultrasound;
• Ketogenic diet, to “starve” cancer cells; and
• Vitamin C therapy, intravenous use of very large doses of vitamin C.
Mr Robinson said the treatments offered by the Hope Clinic were not illegal but he was concerned that they were being marketed dishonestly to cancer sufferers.
“Alternative health therapists must practice in a safe and ethical manner and that includes providing correct information about the efficacy of treatments so clients can make informed decisions about pursuing a particular therapy,” he said.
In February and March 2010, Consumer Affairs Victoria wrote to Mr Campbell requesting him to remove certain representations from the Hope Clinic's website and to provide written undertakings that the Clinic would refrain from marketing its treatments in certain ways.
After Mr Campbell declined to provide the requested undertakings, Consumer Affairs Victoria commenced action in the Supreme Court in May this year.
The trial will be heard in the Supreme Court at a date to be fixed. The injunctions restraining the conduct of Hope Clinic and Mr Campbell will remain in force until further order of the Court.
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