Kerosene Cures Cancer-Fiction!

Kerosene Cures Cancer – Fiction!

Summary of eRumor: 

Kerosene can be used to cure cancer and other blood diseases.

The Truth: 

There’s no proof that kerosene kills cancer cells, but there’s plenty of proof that it can kill humans.

This eRumor surfaced a number of years ago. A report by a person identified as Caro Huptn, the editor of the newspaper TAGO, claimed that a woman had cured more than 20,000 patients with kerosene. It has appeared on many alternative medicine websites, often with a disclaimer like this one:

“The following report was given to us by a woman from Michigan. Nothing has been done to verify the information as it sounds quite unusual compared with the knowledge we already have that benefits the cancer patient. It is being printed only to pass on information that arrives at the FACT office, and possibly, for someone doing research to conduct a project to validate or negate the information. If the research is undertaken, we would appreciate receiving the report.”

Outside of that one report about kerosene and cancer, there is no record of anyone named Caro Huptn, or the newspaper TAGO, on the Internet. But there has been plenty of research done on how kerosene affects humans, and it’s not good.

In 2010, a group of researchers looked at the impact medicinal kerosene had on people in developing countries. The researches looked at cases where kerosene had been used to treat hemorrhoids, but its effect on people who used it to treat cancer would be the same. According to the study:

“Kerosene and other petroleum oils were used as the drugs of choice for many medical problems in the past years. The most common use of kerosene was antiseptic aid for cuts and scrapes. Daily applications of kerosene were also used to treat head lice, athlete’s foot, animal problems including cracked or infected hooves, and worm infections…

“Nowadays, it is obvious that kerosene chemical-based components are toxic materials for the human body. These materials were found to cause significant direct and indirect dangerous effects on health through inhalation, ingestion, injection, or local dermal contacts. These negative effects may lead to losing the functions of organs of body or lead to long-term disabilities. Although training and increasing of public awareness about these side effects may prevent self-therapy of kerosene, early diagnosis of these side effects can help in the results of care.”

That means that even if kerosene could kill cancer cells, it would likely kill the patient along with those cells.