Diet pill death ‘a first for Ireland’

A young man in his 20s has died after taking deadly dieting pills bought online — in what an expert has said is the first loss of its kind here.

The man died in mid-May, just weeks after the State’s medical watchdog issued a public warning about potentially lethal slimming products. He took tablets containing the highly toxic substance dinitrophenol (DNP), which is commonly used in diet pills.

The Health Products Regulatory Authority issued an alert on April 21 after a young woman died in Britain after taking DNP. The substance can accelerate the body’s metabolism to an alarmingly high level, triggering potentially dangerous side effects.