Toxic ‘diet pills’ that killed this 21-year-old can be bought on the web for just 70p
DEADLY diet pills thought to have killed six young people in Britain are being sold online for just 70p each.
Unscrupulous dealers in the UK and abroad are selling the potentially fatal drug, which contains a toxic chemical used in pesticides and explosives, to those desperate to lose weight.
Some promise next- day delivery, while others even offer free samples for those who want to ‘try before they buy’.
The most recent victim of the chemical 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) is Eloise Aimee Parry, 21, as reported in yesterday’s Mail. She died this month after buying it online to slim down – despite being a normal weight. Five others have died since 2008.
Yesterday, her mother, Fiona, told how the drug arrived in a ‘nondescript’ plastic bag labelled with a white sticker embossed with the letters ‘DNP’ and an illustration of its chemical formula. She found it in her daughter’s handbag after her death in hospital on April 12. Mrs Parry, 51, a chemistry teacher, said the drug was simple to concoct, adding: ‘ A student with a decent grade in A-level chemistry could work out how to synthesise this.’
Despite the dangers, the drug can be bought cheaply and easily online, the Daily Mail discovered yesterday. Simple internet searches found dozens of firms marketing and selling DNP as a miracle diet pill for home delivery in ‘discreet packaging’.
Others based in China were offering the powder contained in the capsules in bulk, allowing anyone to make pills and sell them online.
One company claimed to be based in the UK. It had a sale on, with 100 pills for £70. It also offered to send six free tablets to try.
Miss Parry, from Shrewsbury, died after taking eight – six more than the fatal dose. She ‘burned up from within’, her mother said.
DNP, a yellow organic compound, is used to suppress plant growth and as an explosive. It was popular as a diet aid in the 1930s but was banned after it was found to be poisonous. Despite this, it has become popular again, particularly among bodybuilders.
It works by causing the body to overheat, accelerating the metabolism so it burns more fat. However it also causes dehydration, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating and a rapid or irregular heartbeat and can lead to coma and death.
Long-term use can lead to the development of cataracts and skin lesions and may cause damage to the heart and nervous system. There is also evidence that DNP causes cancer and increases the risk of birth defects.
It is illegal to sell for human consumption, but sellers get around this by claiming to sell it as a pesticide or dye, which is not illegal, or with disclaimers.
There is little British authorities can do because most firms are based or registered overseas.
Miss Parry, who was bulimic, was a families and childcare studies student at Glyndwr University in Wrexham, north Wales.
On April 12 she drove herself to A&E after taking eight pills and becoming unwell. Within three hours, she was dead.
Mrs Parry said she had no idea her daughter had been taking slimming pills until she arrived at A&E to be told by doctors she had died.
Police are investigating the source of Miss Parry’s tablets. However, the British website found by the Mail, which was decorated with Union Flags, offered next-day delivery and said the pills were ‘the most powerful and effective weightloss tool available’, claiming customers could lose 1lb a day.
It added: ‘Used correctly, there is simply nothing like it.’
Other firms are based in Turkey, the US and Russia.
In almost all cases, it is impossible to trace those behind the websites because they are registered to offshore host companies.
The National Poisons Information Service said there were just six enquiries from GPs about DNP in 2012 – a year later there were 300. Referring to online merchants, Mrs Parry, a single mother of five, said: ‘They don’t care about the damage they inflict, about the pain and suffering of the people who take this stuff and pay a price for it.’
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency cannot take action against manufacturers or distributors because DNP is not classified as a medicinal product.
In theory, the Food Standards Authority could act if DNP was sold for human consumption. But most firms are registered abroad so they fall outside its jurisdiction.
Victims’ families have been campaigning for DNP to be classified as an illegal drug, and in 2013, David Cameron promised to ‘look carefully’ at the issue.
But in March the Home Office told an MP it would not make the drug illegal because it contains no ‘psychoactive’ properties.
‘They don’t care about the suffering’