Dangerous; The Food Standards Agency has told Consumers not to take Pills containing any level of DNP

Afrik Update

DNP is sold mostly over the internet under a number of different names but contains 2, 4-Dinitrophenol.

It is marketed mainly to bodybuilders as a weight loss aid as it is thought to dramatically boost metabolism.

The Food Standards Agency has told consumers not to take pills containing any level of DNP after a second death was linked to the substance.

The manufactured drug is yellow and odourless and was previously used as a herbicide and fungicide. It was launched as a slimming aid in the U.S. in the 1930s but then banned in 1938, due to the severe side-effects.

According to a study published last year in the Journal of Medical Toxicity, in medical literature has attributed 62 deaths to DNP.

The study authors from the Whittington Hospital in London, wrote: 'DNP is reported to cause rapid loss of weight, but unfortunately is associated with an unacceptably high rate of significant adverse effects.'

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                                                         Selena Walrond

In 2008, Selena Walrond from Croydon, south London, died after taking DNP she had purchased online.

The yellow pills had sent her heart-rate racing and temperature soaring. She was found by her mother Anjennis trying to cool down the next day.

She was taken to hospital but died eight hours later from a heart attack.

Croydon Coroner's Court heard that Selena had taken a gram of the drug the day before she died.

At the time her mother said: 'I'll never forget her yellow fingernails and skin  -  the drug was sweating out of her.

'Selena's life has been cruelly snatched away, all because she was desperate to lose weight. DNP is lethal. If you want to lose weight, do it the sensible way.'

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.