Onshido brand Chinese diet pills
IN PHOTO: Onshido brand Chinese diet pills, included on a recent Japanese Health Ministry warning list of 14 Chinese-made diet products linked to health problems, are displayed at home of an office worker in Tokyo July 26, 2002. [Japanese police made their first arrest on Wednesday in a crackdown on sales of the Chinese-made slimming products, which have been linked to four deaths and illness in 400 others. The office worker stopped taking the pills after using one bottle and losing three kilograms Reuters

Interpol has given out a global warning over the use of diet pills, known as DNP, which have caused the death of one woman and left a man critically ill. The drug reportedly causes overheating from the inside.

The Interpol warning was sent out by request from the French government and after getting test results on the drug performed at the Australian World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory. According to The Independent, DNP, or dinitrophenol, was first used to make explosives in France during World War I. It was then discovered that it has the potential to increase metabolism and cause weight loss.

Later on, this bomb ingredient was marketed as a slimming pill, until the late 1930s when it was found to have several detrimental effects to health. DNP interferes with the body’s natural fat and carbohydrate breakdown process, which in turn releases heat instead of fuel for muscle and body functions, from energy.

In 2014, a study was performed and found that DNP use had returned and was associated with the deaths of at least five people in the UK between 2007 and 2013. Recently, the drug took the life of a British woman named Eloise Parry.

Sky News Australia reports that Parry was 21 years old when she started taking the diet pills. On April 12, she died at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, and it was believed to be caused by an unintentional overdose of DNP pills bought from an online outlet.

Interpol said that online DNP sellers were attempting to smuggle the drug and evade custom officials by having labels of the spice turmeric, according to the report from The Independent. The agency has issued the Orange Alert to call on consumers to be vigilant about these slimming pills and to refrain from purchasing online pharmaceuticals.

According to Chief Inspector Jennifer Mattinson, the drugs are not just produced in clandestine drug laboratories but are also prepared in an unhygienic manner. Other than the known dangers of DNP, the risks accompanying its use are doubled due to “illegal manufacturing conditions,” she said.

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