Officials seize 200,000 slimming tablets a year

An average of nearly 200,000 slimming tablets are being seized every year, according to the State medicines watchdog.

Experts estimate the figure represents an unknown fraction of the total quantity bought on the web by unsuspecting consumers through often legitimate-looking online pharmacies.

It comes as gardaí and health authorities continue their investigations into the death of a young man following the suspected consumption of a slimming product ordered over the internet.

It is thought to be the first fatality of its kind in the country and comes just a week after Irish authorities warned consumers about buying medicines and lifestyle products online, given the risks they pose.

The death occurred in May after the man consumed a product containing dinitrophenol (DNP), a toxic chemical which has been linked to 60 deaths worldwide.

His death occurred shortly after the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) issued a national warning about the substance. The warning had followed the death of 21-year-old Aimee Parry in England.

DNP has been found in 98 capsules so far this year in Ireland, representing a small percentage of the overall number seized.

HPRA figures show that, on average, almost 550 slimming tablets are seized every day by the authority and customs officials.

Some 154,109 tablets were seized in 2013 (the last year figures are available), similar to 2012, when 153,042 tablets were confiscated. This compares to larger quantities in the preceding two years: 251,883 in 2011 and 290,240 in 2010.

Experts believe the seizures reflect the scale of the online trade, with seemingly legitimate pharmacies selling the products to unsuspecting consumers, both here and abroad.

Slimming products are used in dieting, including by some bodybuilders and gym enthusiasts. They are sometimes used in conjunction with steroids, which the HPRA and gardaí suspect are traded among gym networks.

HPRA chief executive Pat O’Mahony said these counterfeit and illegal medicines “pose a serious health risk” to consumers as they had “no idea what they were getting”.

He said products such as slimming tablets contained sibutramine, which has been banned because it is “so dangerous”; it has been linked to cardiac problems and stroke.

Commenting on the recent death, Mr O’Mahony said: “The information we have at this time indicates that this young man consumed DNP and our thoughts are with his family. These investigations are ongoing, and we strongly urge members of the public to never use the internet to source slimming products or any prescription medicines at any time — no amount of these products is safe to take.

“Bogus websites can be very sophisticated and appear to be legitimate. However, in reality they can be supplying unsafe and harmful products. Laboratory analysis of products detained in the past has shown that medicines being sold through illicit websites will often contain too little or too much of the active ingredient or may contain undeclared and harmful substances.”

DNP is known to have serious short- and long-term effects, which the HPRA said can be extremely dangerous to human health.

The chemical accelerates the body’s metabolism and it can do so to a dangerously fast level. Speeding up the metabolism may trigger a number of potentially dangerous side effects.