Christine Lee Ching-shun knows all too well the lengths women will go to in pursuit of the perfect body. The dietician at Chinese University's Centre for Nutritional Studies hears on a daily basis tales of fad weight-loss schemes and disappointments.
In counselling sessions, she hears of the risks women will take in order to shed a few pounds. They pop pills and take concoctions that cause nausea, vomiting or heart palpitations, knowing these could be highly dangerous.
'Most of them will stop using them when they have palpitations,' Ms Lee said. 'They might have heard from a friend that it works and they go around hunting for these products - it doesn't matter how far they have to go, sometimes crossing the border.' She is referring to adulterated slimming products that contain western weight-loss drugs such as fenfluramine and sibutramine. While the latter is a prescription drug, fenfluramine was banned by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1997 after studies linked it to heart-valve damage.
It is not uncommon for these drugs to be found in slimming supplements in Hong Kong. Last year, the Department of Health found 46 such products contained western pharmaceutical ingredients. The year before, there were 43 cases.
While western drugs are strictly controlled in Hong Kong, health supplements are not subject to regulation. Even if the authorities discover adulterated health products, the lack of a registration system means the chances of tracing the manufacturer or distributor are slim.
It is a situation the medical and pharmaceutical professions have urged the government to address, and one which has taken on a more acute sense of urgency after a recent discovery at the Hospital Authority's Toxicology Reference Laboratory.
Dr Tony Mak Wing-lai and his colleagues at the laboratory have found slimming products that contain 'analogues', which are created by modifying the chemical structure of pharmaceuticals.
