Danger in just one tablet

DNP, now used as a pesticide, was developed as an explosive – but munitions factory workers began to suffer weight loss and weakness.

In 1933 a US researcher found that this is because DNP speeds up the metabolism. It was then sold as slimming drug but swiftly withdrawn after it was linked to serious side-effects and deaths – just one pill can prove fatal.

Even though it is illegal to sell DNP for human consumption, 14 deaths in the UK between 2007 and 2014 were linked to the drug.