THE TOXIN HUNTER

FIRST, IT WAS INSOMNIA. THE PATIENTS STBEAMINS INTO THE OFFICE OF DR PIETER GO HEM ALL GOMPLED OF SLEEPLESS MIGHTS.

One woman had headaches, chest pain and nausea. Another was depressed, sweating and trembling. Then a truck driver came to him with another concern: he couldn’t figure out why he had just tested positive for amphetamines.

It was 2006, and Cohen, who was working at a community health clinic in Somerville, Massachusetts, realised that something was amiss. Many of his patients were Brazilian immigrants, so Cohen, who speaks some Portuguese, began to ask them questions. There was little that was surprising about their diet or exercise habits, but the results of their lab tests shocked him. A number of the patients had amphetamines in their systems, though none believed they had taken any. Some also showed traces of known tranquilisers, hypnotics and antidepressants.

Eventually, staff members at the clinic suggested a possible culprit: Brazilian-made diet pills, sold in generic packaging in the local area. Cohen asked his patients about the pills and they all admitted to taking them.

“Because people were having such significant symptoms, it just gave me the sense that something powerful was in the pills that was mysterious or interesting,” Cohen recalls.

He acquired samples and found a lab that could analyse them. The tests showed that the pills contained dangerous amounts of fenproporex, an amphetamine linked to anxiety