The framed photo of a smiling Matteo is the only one that covers the white walls of this Rennes apartment.
It's been a year since he left his family.
"We have overcome the trauma, we are now in absolute lack," says Pascaline her mother.
A student in a business school, Matteo was only 20 years old.
Died in the emergency room of the Rennes University Hospital on January 4, 2020 at 9 a.m., he had called the Samu a few hours before and had reported that he had taken DNP, a chemical substance used illicitly as a diet product to quickly lose pounds. .
“We were called while on vacation 650 kilometers away and told us he was in serious condition.
I immediately felt that he was dead, ”recalls Pascaline.
On the way to the hospital, she scoured websites to see what DNP was.
Historically, this product was first used as a dye, preservative, herbicide or even explosive before it was discovered by chance in the 1930s, its effects on weight loss.
This metabolic poison burns calories by forcing cells to produce enormous amounts of heat.
Its use in humans was quickly banned due to its acute toxicity and the numerous associated deaths.
The explanations on this Anglo-Saxon site are clear.
The product is used as a pesticide or fertilizer ... It is not intended for human consumption. / LP / Solenne Durox
DNP has reappeared thanks to the development of online sales and is circulating in the field of bodybuilding, but not only.
Slimming addicts also use it.
Interpol had launched a global alert in 2015. "Matteo had given up basketball to do bodybuilding in 2019. We discovered that he had supplied the first time in a gym and then directly on the Internet," explains Pascaline.
She knew her son was taking protein but was ignorant of his doping practices.
"He wasn't the type to smear himself in oil to show off his muscles."
"No doctor has sounded the alarm"
The whole family was worried because, for the past few months, Matteo, who neither drank nor smoked, had encountered health problems: increased heart rate, shortness of breath, excessive sweating, thyroid problem, onset of diabetes, insomnia… He drank until to 6 liters of water per day!
“In the summer of 2019, he called me in the middle of the night, he was throwing up and he was taken to the emergency room of a clinic.
He had explained to the doctors that he was taking DNP but did not want us to know.
Perhaps he was afraid to disappoint us, ”wonders Michel, his father.
After exams and three days in hospital, he came out in great shape until symptoms returned a few weeks later.
He was seeing the family doctor who was also aware of the DNP.
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“She was doing more check-ups, ultrasounds, x-rays and telling us that everything was under control.
No doctor has sounded the alarm, ”Pascaline laments.
The last visit to the emergency room was fatal.
Her body was so stiff that it was impossible to give her a heart massage or intubate her.
An investigation was opened and the autopsy confirmed the involvement of the DNP.
While searching his studio, the police found a sachet of DNP capsules which contained a yellow powder inside.
The young man was at the beginning of a new dry cure to lose fat mass.
Investigators traced to the gym and to a website hosted in Panama.
They managed to get it closed before it reopened under a different name three weeks later.
"Once DNP is active in the body, there is no way to stop it"
DNP has reappeared thanks to the development of online sales and is circulating in the field of bodybuilding but not only./LP/Solenne Durox
Bodybuilding forums are full of uplifting and scary testimonials.
“You clearly have to be prepared to spend days and entire nights in front of the fan, not sleeping all night, changing your sheets 54,864 times, spending your life naked, the windows open even at 3 degrees, taking 20 cold showers. from which you will come out sweating (…) and more generally believe yourself in Satan's lair.
It's not just being hot.
It's dying of heat, ”we read in a post dated 2017. A study conducted by the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg published last November in the journal Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology shows a 20% reduction in life expectancy of birds treated with DNP.
“Once DNP is active in the body, there is no way to stop it.
There is no antidote.
A dose in someone does not have the same effects in another, ”observes Dr Alain Baert, specialist in forensic medicine and toxicology at Rennes University Hospital.
According to him, Matteo's case "is the tip of the iceberg", and is part of a growing trend in body building and shaping practices.
By talking to those around them about the drama that touched them, those close to Mattéo have indeed discovered that the substance was known to the youngest and that people in their distant entourage had taken it or were considering taking it.
There have been deaths abroad in recent years.
Between 2007 and 2020, the UK's National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) recorded 140 cases of poisoning and 32 deaths.
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Reports are also numerous in the United States and Australia.
This led the World Health Organization (WHO) to request information from poison control centers in several countries in the last quarter of 2020 in order to measure the extent of the phenomenon.
We are able to reveal that 12 poisonings and 3 deaths (including 2 last year) have been counted in France since 2010, especially among twenty-something.
A non-exhaustive case review.
In order to do prevention with potential consumers and doctors, Matteo's family plans to create an association.
Pascaline and Michel are convinced that if they manage to save even one person, they will have given meaning to their son's death.