The United Nations drug control board has said that the illicit availability of appetite suppressant pills online is fuelling a slimming obsession that is putting lives at risk. It says that a growing number of women who are desperate to lose weight are buying slimming pills online without knowing enough information about them.

The warnings have come following the death of anorexic Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston who was believed to be taking both slimming pills and painkillers.

The UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has called for the stricter enforcement of control measures and public education campaigns about the risks from the misuse of prescription drugs, including painkillers and tranquillisers. President of the INCB, Dr Philip Emafo explained that appetite suppressant drugs, also known as anorectics, have a use in the treatment of life-threatening obesity and are prescribed and monitored by doctors. He went on to say: "However, they are instead being used indiscriminately to feed the slimming obsession that affects some societies."

The true scale of the problem is unclear but the report by the INCB has said that the abuse of slimming pills has already outstripped that of heroin and cocaine in some parts of the world. Last year a survey by the Closerdiets website found that half of 1,230 UK women admitted to using slimming pills. Professor Hamad Ghodse, former president of the INCB and chairman of addiction psychiatry at London's St George's Hospital, said: "We need to know the size of the problem in the UK. We think probably in the UK there are adequate regulations in place, but there needs to be the implementation of these regulations."

Dr Emafo added: "It is important for consumers to realise that what they think is a cut-price medication bought on an unregulated market may however have potentially lethal effects whenever the consumed drugs are not the genuine product or are taken without medical advice. Instead of healing, they can take lives."

There are 14 different appetite suppressants that have been developed to treat obesity and other conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that the global availability of counterfeit medicine had increased in recent years, mostly through unregulated websites operating on the internet. A spokesperson said that in the past 12 months, the MHRA had taken action against 30 web sites illegally supplying medicines, including counterfeits, and that they would continue to target similar enterprises.

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