Summary: Homeopathy UK, formerly the British Homeopathic Association (BHA) has had its second (in two weeks) Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) adjudication upheld against its marketing.
Edit 20 May 2021: Les Rose has submitted a Serious Concern to the Association's Trustees about the failure to meet the public benefit requirement of the Charities Act (the Association is registered as a charity). I've also re-arranged bits of the post below and added a Table of Contents for clarity.
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Table of Contents
1. Preamble
2. My ASA complaint
3. Further reading
4. Screenshots (that go with (2))
1. Preamble
On 5 May 2021 I spotted that the ASA had published its rulings including one about Homeopathy UK. As I also had a complaint about Homeopathy UK's website in the pipeline I was a bit puzzled and initially assumed it was mine (until I read and discovered that the complaint was made by the Good Thinking Society) and that mine was next in the queue.
I didn't know that GTS had put in a complaint, and to be fair I don't think I'd mentioned mine to them either so they happened independently. I see from the statement** put out today by Homeopathy UK that they suspect we're all working together behind the scenes on these complaints but that wasn't the case in this particular instance - I'm not sure if they realise that several people keep an eye on homeopaths' (and homeopathy societies' and associations') websites.
The story has been picked up in The Times (including an opinion piece) and Mail Online. Prof Edzard Ernst has also written about it and it's also in the BMJ (see 3. Further Reading).
Below is my original complaint, I've not included the follow up discussions though as you can read the final output in the adjudication. My complaint didn't mention depression but it's not that unusual that the ASA might add in another concern after looking at the information for themselves. I did mention a page about cancer which has also been taken down - normally that would be referred to Trading Standards but presumably no need for that now it's been removed.
I've deliberately mangled the links that no longer work in the text below - if you want to visit them (all links now point to the main 'conditions' landing page anyway) you'd need to paste them into a browser address bar and delete the ^^.
2. My ASA complaint: relevant screenshots are at the end
Why is the British Homeopathic Association (now known as Homeopathy UK) allowed to have a page on its website listing almost 50 conditions "where homeopathy can help"? https://homeopathy-uk.org/homeopathy/how-homeopathy-helps/conditions
None of that is true and several of the conditions are quite serious (allergies, asthma, cancer (!), circulatory problems, Crohn's etc). Each of these pages is written by a single author, drawing on their experiences of treating people who have the relevant condition. Of the 4 pages I've viewed in more depth (below) no evidence is offered beyond purely anecdotal.
I was amazed to see cancer included (https://home^^opathy-uk.or^^g/
Later on that page the author references this rather theatrical example "Along with Mistletoe injections, I also prescribed X-ray 30c on the morning of radiotherapy, along with Belladonna in the afternoon, both of which have been shown in one placebo-controlled trial to reduce the inflammation of the skin and deeper tissues that is caused with radiotherapy" - I can only wonder how diluted X-rays are prepared, or what they might be supposed to do.
The diabetes page (https://home^^opathy-uk.or^^g/
The page on infertility (https://home^^opathy-uk.or^^g/
The page on psoriasis (https://home^^opathy-uk.or^^g/
Jo
3. Further reading
- Homeopathy site banned from discussing depression (19 May 2021) The Times, Kat Lay
- Clamp down on bogus science of homeopathy (19 May 2021) The Times, Oliver Kamm
- Homeopathy charity is hit by ad ban after claiming the treatment can be used for depression, diabetes and infertility (19 May 2021) Mail Online, Isabella Nikolic
- Clamp down on the bogus science of homeopathy (19 May 2021) Edzard Ernst's blog
- Homeopathy UK told to take down articles saying remedies can help depression and asthma (20 May 2021) BMJ, Clare Dyer
- Re: Homeopathy UK told to take down articles saying remedies can help depression and asthma (21 May 2021) BMJ: Rapid Response, Jo Brodie (me!)
- ASA to charity: Remove claims homeopathy helps diabetes and asthma (21 May 2021) C+D (Chemist + Druggist), Grace Lewis
ASA Adjudications against Homeopathy UK aka British Homeopathic Association
- ASA Ruling on Homeopathy UK (19 May 2021) - mine
- ASA Ruling on Homeopathy UK (5 May 2021) - Good Thinking Society's
**Homeopathy UK have shared their "A message from our Chief Executive" statement several times on Twitter (though apparently not on Facebook) and the quote tweets for several of them are rather more critical. If you've been blocked and need to view the tweets in a private window while logged out you won't be able to see them via the Quote Tweet button (it requires login). Ignore that and just paste each link below into the search bar or visit https://twitter.com/explore - this, in essence, shows you mentions of that tweet (logically identical to the quote tweet format).
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1395005017741041671
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1395046861581455362
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1395281901116608515
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1395402698388873226
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1395674487429996546
https://twitter.com/bhahomeopathy/status/1396460917001494532
4. Screenshots (these were attached to my original ASA complaint):
Homeopathy UK 01 - list of conditions
Homeopathy UK 02 - list of conditions
Homeopathy UK 03 - cancer and diabetes
Homeopathy UK 04 - infertility and psoriasis
Posts
H-UK says -
ReplyDelete"We wrote to the ASA explaining that the very basis of this complaint is flawed in that it fails to understand both the context in which the articles appear and the nature of homeopathic treatment. Despite the fact that Homeopathy UK’s website does not promote or endorse products or services for commercial gain, the ASA repeatedly referred to the articles as “adverts”. We explained that, for more than a century this charity has sought to share high-quality information about homeopathy and that patient safety is at the heart of our charitable purpose."
The H-UK website has a "Find a Homeopath" feature. This is probably sufficient for the ASA to consider the website as promoting homeopathic services. There is various CAP guidance on charity advertising etc.
"The idea that, after reading our website, someone might decline essential medical treatment is as troubling as it is unlikely. Not least because we know the people who visit the site to be discerning and intelligent people who are able to make informed choices about their own healthcare."
That "Find a Homeopath" feature includes not just members of the Faculty of Homeopathy (FoH), but also members of the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) and the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths (ARH). SoH and ARH members are more likely to tell consumers not to seek medical treatment and claim to be able to treat/cure/prevent serious conditions. Anti-vaccination is a BIG issue at the current time and the ARH has some extremely anti-vaccination members (as well as Steve Scrutton). H-UK is hardly serving public health if its search facility presents details of those members.