Father of student who died after taking weight loss drug warns of more tragedies

Geoff Houston, a doctor, and his family are calling for the lethal drug DNP to be made illegal after his 23-year-old daughter Sarah died after taking it.

Medical student Sarah Houston was found dead by her housemates after she had taken a combination of antidepressants and the banned fat burning pill DNP.

Miss Houston, a fourth year medical student, was found dead in Leeds by her housemates after she had taken a combination of antidepressants with DNP, which she managed to get hold of over the internet and was taking in secret. She had suffered with an eating disorder since she was 15 and had had bulimia in the past.Mr Houston said: “I’ve no doubt there will be more tragedies.

“Three people have died from taking DNP in the last six months, and this is where DNP has been found. What happens if people have been taking it and we don’t detect it? Maybe people have died and we don’t know. In Sarah's case the capsules were found in her room, but it wouldn't necessarily be tested.

“I think people are at risk from this drug.”

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Miss Houston, a fourth year medical student from Buckinghamshire, was taking antidepressants to treat her bulimia and had managed to get hold of DNP – which has been banned from human consumption because of the side effects it causes – through the internet from a company that is believed to have imported it from Spain. She had been seeing a psychiatrist for three years for her eating disorder and at the time of her death her psychiatrist and her mother said she seemed to be turning a corner and was not depressed.An inquest into her death returned a verdict of death by misadventure.Miss Houston would have been the fifth in her family to become a doctor, and the family have vowed to call for the drug to be made illegal.Mr Houston added: “There’s not enough awareness about the dangers of this drug. People using it are in extreme danger.”At the moment DNP is banned for human consumption and is regulated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). But it is not an illegal substance as it is used as an effective pesticide.The FSA has said it can’t ban a substance, but under EU regulations anything that is put into food must be safe. If the drug is found to be sold somewhere for human consumption in the UK the FSA can ask the local authority to investigate. But if this is outside the UK, as many of the online companies selling DNP in capsule form are, this would fall outside its jurisdiction.The inquest into Miss Houston’s death, held in Wakefield, heard that in September last year Miss Houston flatmate’s Sarah Carpenter had been worried about her after she noticed her eyes were yellow and she had had two cold showers to try and cool her down. She suggested calling an ambulance but Miss Houston refused and said the symptoms were not unusual and would pass. She texted her friend later that day but was found by another flatmate that evening on September 24.After her death 62 capsules of DNP were found in her bedroom and 38 were missing.DNP was first used to treat obesity in the 1930s but was banned because of its dangerous side effects. Miss Houston is believed to have been able to get the drug by buying it on the internet. It is known to have been targeted at the body building community and people trying to lose weight.There have been more than 60 deaths connected to DNP worldwide to date, according to the Medical Journal of Toxicology. This also found that deaths increased from 2001 to 2010, which it claims may be due to: "increased availability of DNP over the internet, marketed particularly towards bodybuilders."In February fitness fanatic Sarmad Alladin, a bodybuilder, died after apparently taking DNP to lose weight. The 18-year-old had been living in University accommodation in Surrey and had posted pictures of his muscles on social media just before his death. And in October 2012 father of one Sean Cleathero, 28, is believed to have died after taking the drug which he got from a gym. Last year the FSA issued urgent advice against taking the drug.Mr Houston added: “It's going to be a slow process but hopefully approaching the Home Office to begin with will be the right step and hopefully it will be made illegal."We want to get across to those people who are taking DNP, to say to them to think about what you are doing. You may have been taking it for a long time and you could wake up one day and be seriously ill. And to those people who are selling it as well, if they have an ounce of moral decency they would recognise some of the pills they are selling could be killers."Coroner David Hinchliff also pledged to contact the relevant authorities to call for DNP to be made illegal.A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “This is a tragic loss of life and our thoughts are with the family.“We work with other government agencies to ensure we tackle the availability of dangerous drugs in order to protect individuals and communities from harm."Tough enforcement, including action to tackle online sites offering illegal drugs for sale, is a fundamental part of our drug strategy."Miss Houston had been in her fourth year studying medicine and had recently started a placement in gynaecology. She had spent part of the summer with charity Street Kids Direct in Guatemala and was praised as "inspirational" by members of the charity who have named a bus in her honour.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have also given advice, urging people to not take slimming pills purchased online. They said: "This tragic case has highlighted the potential dangers of buying slimming pills online. These pills can contain powerful ingredients such as DNP, which is not suitable for human consumption."It simply is not worth the danger to overall health to buy and use these products as you just don’t know what is in them."