A BODY builder who nearly died after taking a food supplement blamed for 27 deaths in America is suing the US manufacturer for compensation.

Bruce Newlands, a 24-year-old postal worker from Chilworth, Surrey, could be the first Briton to sue for injuries allegedly caused by tryptophan, an amino acid present in many body-building preparations sold in health food shops.

The case, one of seven reported to the Department of Health, highlights the lack of government control over the sale of such products, which are classed as foods, not medicines.

The Department of Health issued draft regulations to ban products containing tryptophan last June, but these have not yet been laid before Parliament. Tryptophan preparations have been banned in America, France, Japan and Malaysia.

In the US 1,500 people have developed a rare, potentially fatal blood disorder, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS), after taking tryptophan.

The illness resembles the toxic cooking oil syndrome, which killed more than 600 people who used contaminated industrial-grade rapeseed oil sold door-to-door in Spain in 1981.

Symptoms include body rashes, shortness of breath, painful and tender muscles, inflammation of the liver and lungs, hair loss, and claw-like hands.

In the US tryptophan products were taken for depression, insomnia and pre-menstrual cramps as well as body building. In Britain it was present in two medicines, Pacitron and Optimax, prescribed for depression, but now withdrawn.

Tryptophan is an amino acid which occurs naturally in foodstuffs. The products linked to EMS contain tryptophan manufactured in Japan.

A Japanese manufacturer, Showa Denko has been named in 89 American lawsuits totalling Dollars 810 million.

Mr Newlands became ill after taking tablets containing tryptophan and three other amino acids, made by Sportstar USA and bought in May 1989 at an Aldershot health food shop. His weight dropped from 16 1/2 to 12 stone.

'I started to swell up like a Michelin Man,' he said. 'My body just went downhill. I lost all my strength and was short of breath.' It attacked the nervous system, heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. My lungs went down to one-third normal capacity.'

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Doctors at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford were baffled by the illness.

It was only when the Department of Health issued a warning about tryptophan and EMS last November that they made the link. Analysis of the tablets revealed contamination by a fungus.

Mr Newlands was in hospital for eight months, spent more than two months in a wheelchair and now walks on crutches. Five weeks ago he returned to his job as a letter sorter, but only for nine hours a week.

His work as a letter sorter is hampered because thickened skin makes it impossible to straighten his fingers. His knees and elbows are also bent.

Doctors have told him he could be left with severe disabilities.

Professor Vincent Marks, head of biochemistry at Surrey University, said: 'He was a very, very seriously sick young man. At one stage it looked as though he was going to die.'

Professor Marks is concerned that regulations banning tryptophan products are still awaited. 'The regulation of substances which are drugs in all but name, masquerading as food substitutes, is a shambles. If they were treated as drugs, each batch would have to be quality controlled and this would never have happened.'

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Does the patient have a history of trauma to the genital area? Venereal warts may appear on irritated skin, as do the common warts that appear on the fingers and elsewhere on the body. Might the patient have a systemic fungal disease? Warts have been associated with blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, and histoplasmosis. Does the patient have acquired immune deficiency syndrome or is he or she taking immunosuppressive drug therapy? If so, the patient's genital warts are more likely to undergo malignant degeneration than is usually the case.

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