WIREDGOV

Deadly diet pills which "microwave the body" continue to flood the black market as websites selling unlicensed pills are being shut down at a rate of more than five a day, councils are warning.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal slimming pills, including highly toxic fat-burning chemical DNP - responsible for five deaths last year - have been seized in several raids involving local trading standards teams.

The demand for "quick-fix" diet pills is so great that websites are being launched as fast as they are being shut down. Last year about 2,000 websites selling unlicensed slimming tablets were shut down and more than 240,000 doses of pills were seized. The latest significant seizure of DNP came last week at a property in London set up as a diet pill factory.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, is urging government to launch a nationwide consumer awareness campaign to warn people of buying diet pills online or from unknown suppliers. It is also calling for tougher penalties on criminals selling the pills due to the major harm they can cause.

The maximum penalty anyone selling the pills can receive under food safety laws is just two years in prison. Where someone dies, the LGA says the sentence for selling the pills should be comparable with other offences where life has been put at risk.

Many of the pills claim to contain only natural or herbal ingredients when they actually contain banned substances which can dramatically increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and can result in coma and death.

Rogue websites often sell illegal products alongside perfectly legitimate weight loss drugs, which increases the risk of people being misled into buying them.

Illegal diet pills seized in recent raids include:

• Harrow - a man was arrested on suspicion of selling DNP as a slimming aid after a "significant amount" of the substance was seized at a property where a room had been converted into a diet pill factory
• Bury – more than 28,000 banned pills with a street value of £52,000 confiscated
• Hampshire – 23,000 illegal slimming pills worth £30,000 seized
• Sussex – banned ‘herbal' diet pills worth £40,000 seized from a home set up as a distribution centre

Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the LGA's Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said:

"Those involved in the illegal supply of diet pills aren't interested in people's health - they are only interested in making a profit. There needs to be longer sentences for supplying substances such as DNP because they can kill people.

"Numerous websites make attractive claims by offering ‘quick-fix' solutions for tablets. ‘Natural' or ‘herbal' doesn't mean they are safe. Many of these slimming pills will not be licensed medicines and contain unknown and dangerous ingredients which could seriously endanger people's health and could cost them their lives.

"Weight loss pills should only be used on a prescription basis and obtained from a reputable high street or registered pharmacy which can trade online.

"There are no real quick fixes to losing weight. Healthy weight loss is about an ongoing lifestyle that includes long-term changes in daily eating and physical activity habits. Anyone with concerns about their health should contact their GP and get a proper diagnosis."

Case studies

• On February 24, 2016 a 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of supplying the industrial chemical DNP as a slimming aid following an operation involving Ealing and Harrow Borough Councils
• More than 28,000 illegal Aduki Diet pills with a street value of £52,000 were seized during a raid in Whitefield, Bury, in January 2016
• About 23,000 doses of banned slimming pills were confiscated during a raid on an address in Waterlooville, Hampshire, in November 2015
• Diet pills worth around £40,000 were seized from a cottage in Wadhurst, Sussex in June 2015. The Lida Daidaihua pills contained banned substance sibutramine

Notes

1. Most slimming tablets help people lose weight by controlling appetite and stopping snacking but many of them contain ingredients unfit for human consumption.  These include dinitrophenol - DNP - which accelerates the metabolism to a dangerously fast level and in large doses can cause death by ‘cooking' the body from within. The most commonly seized product is ‘Reductil' which was withdrawn from the market six years ago due its active ingredient sibutramine which increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

2. Under current laws harmful diet pills can be banned from being sold on the UK high street or through UK-based websites, but online retailers based overseas can still legally ship the tablets to the UK

3. DNP is not illegal for sale as it has legitimate uses in areas such as biochemical research and in manufacturing chemicals. But it is illegal where sold for human consumption. Last year, DNP was responsible for five deaths. A 25-year-old man from Suffolk, was hours from death in July 2015 after using DNP pills in a bid to get in shape

4. The side effects of using DNP include fever, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, restlessness, excessive sweating, dizziness, headaches, rapid breathing, rapid or irregular heartbeat

5. During 2015 The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized more than 240,000 doses of pills claiming to be for weight loss/slimming. Many of the products were marketed as ‘all herbal' or ‘natural' but contained banned substance sibutramine. Last year the MHRA also shut down about 2,000 websites selling unlicensed slimming pills.

6. Anyone considering buying a product that describes itself as herbal or natural should look for products that display the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) logo or a PL/THR number, which shows they have been approved by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Anyone with concerns about a slimming product can contact Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice Consumer helpline on 03454 040506.