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♪ now an update on another case from our files. new information on a designer drug we reported on last year. it's a drug with a nickname that made it sound harmless, but bath salts turned out to be dangerous, even deadly. tonight a big development

stemming from our hidden camera investigation. >> reporter: last spring we showed you on hidden camera how easy it was to purchase a dangerous new designer drug over-the-counter. >> $50. >> reporter: at this so-called head shop in new york city, we bought something called bath salts. this isn't the stuff you put in a bath. >> these are bath salts. >> reporter: inside these vials is a chemical called mdpv, a white powder first seen by law enforcement just three years ago. it was legal to sell because it didn't fall into any known category of controlled substances, as they're called by the drug enforcement administration, and even though the containers say not for human consumption, this clerk in new york readily admitted what you really do with them. >> so what do you do, you snort them, smoke them? >> yeah. >> reporter: bath salts can cause hallucination, extreme paranoia, and they've sent thousands of people to emergency

rooms across the country. john moody knows the dangers all too well. his son, 29-year-old jared, bought them at this gas station near his missouri home. after a week-long binge on the drug, jared committed suicide. his father got to the hospital just in time to say good-bye. >> about ten minutes later his heart started to go, and in 15 minutes he was gone. >> reporter: what did the people selling bath salts have to say? i went back to that new york head shop. >> do you know how dangerous this stuff is? >> not -- it's bath salts. >> bath salts? what are bath salts used for? >> it's for the bath. >> for the bath? >> that's right. >> but you tell people to snort this stuff? >> hmm, yeah, possibly. some people do. >> possibly. >> some people do, yeah. >> nice to meet you, man. >> reporter: also on hidden

camera, we met andrew freeman of minneapolis, minnesota, who is manufacturing and distributing his own brand of bath salts called bliss. >> is this your union even brew? >> yeah. >> reporter: freeman thought he was meeting with a bow teshl investor, but he was really speaking with a "dateline" producer. >> how do you know what to prove it with? >> chemistry. i have been around for it long enough. >> reporter: a few weeks later we went back to see andrew, and this time i was there. >> how are you doing, man? >> good to see you. >> chris. >> reporter: we said we were there to purchase thousands of dollars worth of his bath salts. he assured me that if the government suddenly declared his formula illegal, he was already a step ahead of them. >> cat and mouse game. why am i going to release something? we already have it. >> is it dangerous in any way? >> soon andrew starts picking up on who i am. >> well, andrew, there's something you need to know. >> what? chris hansen. >> yes, with "dateline nbc." we're doing a hidden camera investigation. >> i was under the impression

this was you. i know that. >> you were under the impression that it was me? >> your voice, i could tell from a mile away. i don't appreciate you trying to entrap me. >> i just want to talk to you. >> i told you, it is for baths. >> reporter: what's happened as a result of our reporting? the same weekend our broadcast aired, new york state made the production and distribution of bath salts illegal and a few weeks later federal agents raided that head shop in new york city arresting its owner igor. earlier this week he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver misbranded drugs. >> it's a very high priority with the d.e.a. >> reporter: and last fall the d.e.a. also took action issuing an emergency order banning the ingredients in bath salts. we also spoke with andrew freeman who said he hasn't sold bath salts since our story aired and that he had nothing more to say. special agent gary bog says that the problem hasn't gone away. each time one chemical is banned, creative drug dealers

find a new one to replace it. >> our investigation helped initiate a crackdown at the federal and state level, but this is still a big problem. >> it absolutely is still a problem. these drugs are extremely dangerous. >> will you ever get this under control? >> we're doing the best that we can. one of the things that we really want to try to do is get education out to people and get them to understand that they just don't know what they're taking. >> reporter: coming up, why some dietary supplements may be dangerous to your health. >> somebody knew about it and somebody covered it up. >> reporter: "the hansen files" continue. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. call now for our free guide and tips on planning for your retirement this tax season.

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did you take a vitamin today, capsules? maybe you used one of those 3 c1 natural weight loss powders. then what you are about to hear may come as a bit of a surprise. because dietary supplements are supposed to be natural, they don't have to be approved in advance by the government like medicines do before they hit store shelves, and as we discovered, some supplements may not be as safe as they sound. >> it's a multivitamin, memory formula. >> you are under cover with dateline's hidden cameras inside one of the fastest growing businesses in america. >> this is for just overall brain health. >> reporter: dietary supplements being sold as medical miracles. >> it reduces cholesterol.

>> it will help build muscle. >> take care of your blood pressure. >> reporter: dietary supplements like these have exploded into a $28 billion industry. once mostly for bodybuilders, now supplements are used by soccer moms and millions of others. everything from fish oil to weight loss formulas, to vitamins, all on the promise of better health. with your health at stake, you may be surprised to learn that unlike medicines, the government doesn't approve supplements before they can end up on store shelves. manufacturers don't have to prove supplements are safe. the companies just have to put a list of ingredients on the label. >> it doesn't have to say it on the front, but by law they have to have it on the back. >> reporter: most companies are responsible, but what if we told you some lists of ingredients may not be worth the paper they're printed on? even worse, what if you discovered some supplements can

be more like poisons? >> we have show dogs. >> reporter: barbara king said she trusted the label on her supplement, and it was the start of a living nightmare. >> and i just progressively started feeling extreme fatigue. my hair started falling out. >> your hair started to fall out? >> my hair started to fall out. every time i would get out of the shower and look, it looked like a dog had been in there shedding. i called my daughter, and i said i have just started brushing my hair. i said my hair is going, carla. >> reporter: dotty didn't have any idea why her hair was falling out either. >> oh, this is where my hair was pretty much gone within ten days. >> ten days? >> two weeks. yes. >> i mean, that's stunning, dotty. >> reporter: in a matter of

weeks, she had gone from looking like this to this. her nails were falling off too. and for dozens of other people, those were just the first symptoms. people like wendy, an active young mother, until her joins got so sore she could barely walk. >> eventually i couldn't even stand up it was so painful to stand up. at first no one knew what was causing it. least of all the doctors. >> when the blood tests came back, he said we can't find anything. he said this is the most extensive blood test we can find. >> reporter: and still nothing? >> and still nothing. >> reporter: so what was making people so sick? >> come on. >> reporter: before barbara was struck by the mysterious illness, she started a new diet and a new liquid vitamin. could that be a clue? >> i just wanted a drug supplement because i was dieting, and i was afraid i wasn't getting everything i

needed, and the store clerk recommended that. >> reporter: that was a liquid vitamin supplement called total body formula. >> this is the actual product. >> this is the actual bottle? balance your body the way nature intended. >> right. >> reporter: the label had a detailed list of ingredients supposedly backed up by scientific testing. a reputable product, she thought, purchased from a reputable store, but when she went back to the gnc to buy more, she made a surprising discovery. >> i couldn't find it on the shelf. i asked the store clerk where is your total body formula, and he said, well, i doubt we'll ever have any more of that. >> what did he mean by that? >> well, it had been recalled. >> reporter: turns out instead of taking a liquid vitamin they thought would help them, they had been taking something toxic. >> what you find is an ingredient, a mineral, that is potentially deadly. >> reporter: mark zamora, one of the lawyers suing on behalf of

barbara king and other people who got sick, says it was an overdose of celinium. remember, the government doesn't approve supplements, but it can step in later if problems arise. apparently total body formula is just one of a host of problems. in the past year alone the government has issued dozens of warnings about supplements containing potentially deadly ingredients. >> these products can cause death, strokes, heart attacks. they're very dangerous. >> reporter: for example, says dr. sydney wolf, of the consumer advocacy group, public citizen, a dangerous ingredient has found its way into dozens of supplements. how do we know subutramine is dangerous? because it used to be in a prescription drug called mi imeridia because it was pulled off the shelves because it cussed heart attack.

everything from weight loss formulas to sexual enhancers. >> there have been an unending number of recalls including more even today as we speak. >> given the current system, can people trust what's on the label of a dietary supplement? >> in too many cases they can't. i think that the best dekripgs of a dietary supplement label is don't know in big red letters. >> reporter: we wondered how could what are supposed to be natural supplements make people so sick, and how on earth could they make it all the way to reputable stores? >> it's like the wild west. they do whatever they want. >> wild, wild west. >> you and i could open a supplement company in the back of a pickup truck. >> 25 milligrams of selenium. >> it might not be in the back of a pickup truck, but we're about to set up our own company and create poison supplements and ask labs to check them, all to find out just how wild things can get when it comes to

supplements. coming up, strange black specks show up in the poisoned total body formula. the fix is even stranger. >> we strained it out of it. >> tell them how you did that? >> we used nylon panty hose. >> when "dateline" continues. ourself at olive garden. choose from 6 items like the new calzone or half a flatbread, or a half panini. have it with unlimited soup or salad and get plenty of breadsticks. it's your lunch, your way, and it's just $6.95 at olive garden.

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oh dear... oh dear! ohh dear... i'm not sure exactly what happened here last night. i was out helping people save money on their car insurance.

2 more! you're doing it! aren't they doing great?! hiiiiiii!! come sweat with me! keep going richard. keep sweating!! geico. fifteen minutes could save you sweat! sweat! fifteen percent or more on car insurance. zi didn't -- >> i didn't realize how bad it was. >> people taking total body

formula say that it caused more than their hair to fall out. >> so this wasn't just cosmetic. we're talking about heart problems. >> oh, yes. >> stage three kidney failure. >> that's right. stage five, the end of it wlsh. >> that's it. >> kidney failure. yeah. >> reporter: we wondered how did a supplement like total body formula end up on store shelves to begin with. to find out "dateline" started digging. the memos once marked confidential. turns out there were several companies involved. he we figured out that the problem began when a supplier was trying to prepare the correct amounts of key ingredients. for selenium, there was a mistake in the formula. it said ng for milligram, and it was supposed to be mcg for microgram. if it's been a while since you have been in science class, here's a reminder. this tiny dot represents a microgram. it would take 1,000 of these dots to make one milligram.

it was a frightening mistake, but it was the first in a whole series of errors. example? when another company was blending the selenium into the liquid vitamin drink, workers saw black specks, imagine ones like these floating around in the liquid. >> i want you to tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury -- >> reporter: listen to the plant manager under oath explaining what workers did to filter out the specks. >> we would strain the black specks out of it. >> tell them how you did that. >> we used nylon panty hose. >> reporter: you heard right. records show they stretched women's panty hose over five gallon buckets and poured the vitamin formula through them. >> somebody knew about it, and somebody covered it up, and somebody then sent the product on to us. >> reporter: and it got worse. that company that supplied the selenium was supposed to test the ingredients in a lab to make sure the mixture was accurate. a worker at that company

admitted in a video deposition that after people started getting sick, their supervisor realized there was way too much selenium. >> she sees that it is through the roof crazy. this is why people's hair is falling out. >> reporter: but instead of starting a recall, the supplier sent out this false certificate of analysis saying the amount of selenium was safe. right enrichment declined our request for an interview, but issued this statement saying the selenium mix was prepared to the exact specifications requested, but the statement doesn't explain why the company issued that false certificate apparently without testing the mixture in a lab. earlier this year the three companies involved in making total body formula settle lawsuits with dotty holbrook and others. they denied the product caused the most serious health effects, but admitted it made people's hair fall out. so the question remains just how

reliable are those labels you see on the back of supplements? frank jack says some labs fake tests and simply rubber stamp ingredients. >> a term that we use is the word dry lab. >> dry lab. what does that mean? >> that means the sample comes in, sample goes in the garbage can, never gets tested, and the report goes out. >> reporter: jacks runs a large testing company called chromodex. he is a defender of supplements because he knows there are plenty of honest supplement makers. in fact, some of them hire his company when they want to verify what's in their products. frank jacks says when he started double-checking results from other labs, he was finding so many mistakes he started to think some labs were just fancy fronts pretending to do testing. >> it appears that it's essentially a case of rubber stamping. >> is this a situation where dangerous products are getting on the market because of phony

test results? >> absolutely. >> could some labs really be faking those critical tests? to find out we set up our own supplement company, life root natural. and to give labs something to analyze, we create two supposedly all natural products. we're calling this white powder burn, our natural weight loss formula. >> we're going to close the door to get an accurate measurement. >> reporter: "dateline" asks experts in frank jacks' lab to deliberatery add two different poisons. selenium. that is what caused people's layer to fall out and subutramine, the dangerous diet drug recalled because it caused heart attacks. we also ask for kelp, and we add poisons to it too. >> we intiked in certain levels of both arsenic and lead. >> arsenic? that's what they use to put in rat poisoning. >> yeah. >> lead, also dangerous.

>> highly regulated, both of them. >> reporter: the poisons are carefully blended in. frank jack says there's no way a lab should miss that. so armed with our spiked samples, it's time to test one of the lab's industry sources told us may be rubber stamping ingredients. >> how are you? >> thank you. >> we're under cover. i'm pretending to be the president of life root naturals, our new supplement company. dr. dimesh patel runs a testing lab called atlas bio science. he gives us a tour of his lab and tells us how some companies even host his lab's certifications on-line to show they're doing things right. >> we have two products. life food naturals, kelp powder. we have another product called burn, a weight loss product. >> reporter: in effect, i'm hiring dr. patel to be part of my team to help make sure my supplements are safe.

>> our suppliers have put these together for us. they have also given us, obviously, their certificate of analysis, but i want your people to make sure that, in fact -- >> absolutely. >> -- you know, it is what it's supposed to be. is there -- >> reporter: the certificate i'm giving him has phony numbers, but i'm totally up front about everything i want his lab to test for. including that arsenic. >> we don't want to have levels of heavy metals. >> correct. in fact, we'll be looking for lead, arsenic, kad mee up, and mercury. >> reporter: will he find the poisons? >> we'll actually get these logged in today. >> reporter: or just rubber stamp the phony lab report we gave him? >> coming up -- >> these are all perfectly normal. >> it's way off. he is about 1,000 times too low. >> doctor, there's something i need to tell you. >> okay. >> i'm chris hansen with "dateline nbc." "the hansen files" continues. uh, i was just in the car. oh, the car. what's that on your collar? hmm? oh -- tie.es ] why do you seem

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we've started our own company, created our own product and intentionally spiked them with arsenic and other poisons, and now we're about to find out if a lab will certify they're safe to sell even when they're not. >> you have the samples. >> yeah. >> that's all i need for now. >> when the e-mail arrived with his results, there are some big surprises. >> i would like to show you the results. >> we take them back to the experts, which lab helped spike our samples with poisons. what about the arsenic we added to our kelp powder? frank jack says dr. patel missed it by a mile. >> is he about 1,000 times too low. >> 1,000 times too low? >> yes. they didn't find it. >> reporter: in fact, dr. patel missed all of our poisons. what's more, he certified some good ingredients that aren't really there.

>> dr. patel's lab, essentially, confirmed things that weren't there and did not recognize dangerous things that were there. >> that's exactly right. >> reporter: and it's beginning to look as if dr. patel virtually copied those phony reports we gave him. for example, arsenic. we spiked in 200 parts per million, but we wrote down 0.3. dr. patel's result? 0.26. off just enough from our fake number to look like a real test. >> so this number is almost identical to the number that we told him. >> the phony number we submitted. >> that's correct. >> this particular sample -- >> reporter: is it really possible that he could be so wildly wrong, or could we somehow be misreading dr. patel's report? to make absolutely sure, i arrange another meeting. he still thinks i'm just a businessman, and he doesn't know

we brought along our hidden cameras. >> come on in. >> reporter: first i ask about our green powder, the one we spiked with arsenic and lead. >> so this would be for the kelp extract powder. >> correct. >> reporter: but dr. patel assures me he didn't find anything unusual. >> absolutely. these are all perfectly normal. >> reporter: and it's the same story with our burn weight loss powder. the one we spiked with subutramine and selenium. dr. patel is saying our poisonous supplements are safe to sell. >> doctor, there's something i need to tell you. >> okay. >> it's time to tell dr. patel i'm not the businessman he thinks i am. >> and then as i'm chris hansen with "dateline nbc" and we're doing a story on how bad supplements can possibly end up in stores. >> yeah. >> reporter: as we pull out our regular cameras, i ask whether he is even doing the lab tests. >> so the question is did you do

the tests at all, or did you just come up with numbers that were close to the ones we wanted? you know what a dry lab is? >> of course well, do. >> is this a dry lab? >> no, not at all. we reject products as well. >> reporter: in this e-mail he blamed us for misleading him. when given misleading information regarding a sample's makeup, we would not be aware that the data being observed is being compromised due to matrix perimeters we are not cognizant towards. so were we. we met up with dr. patel one more time. >> we came in here to test you. >> correct. >> it appeared based on the first results, you failed the test. >> i agree. >> dr. patel now admits he got the wrong results, but he gives scientific reasons for why the numbers could be off. >> when we are looking at very small quantities, these values do deviate.

they deviate hugely. what i'm trying to get to is in a real world a shady businessman is not trying to contaminate a product with arsenic, cadmium or lead. >> other labs didn't seem to miss what we planted. we took our sample to the center for national center for natural products research, one of the premier labs. dr. kahn said his lab detected all of our poisons. >> in the kelp we found lead and arsenic. >> reporter: and were they hard to find? >> no. >> reporter: in fact, several other labs find our poisons too. one even warns us about high arsenic and high lead, saying our products deserve careful review before you decide to use them. but there was no warning like that from dr. patel. >> these are all perfectly normal. >> reporter: remember, he missed everything, and somehow, as if by magic, his wrong results were virtually identical to the phony

numbers we gave him. for arsenic, for lead, for sebutramine and even selenium, the thing that caused people's hair to fall out. the bottom line is dr. patel signed off on dangerous products we could have sold all across the country. we took our findings to the fda, the government agency responsible for supplements. >> we had poisons, including lead and arsenic that the lab didn't find. does that surprise you? >> for some labs, unfortunately, no. >> reporter: daniel is the new man in charge of regulating supplements at the food and drug administration. he is soft spoken, but serious, he says, about cracking down on contaminated supplements. if the government knows about the problem, you might think they have a program to inspect labs. think again. >> independent labs, are they ever inspected by the fda? >> at print present we're focussing on the manufacturers and distributors.

>> so no labs are currently being inspected? >> no. >> does that concern you? >> yes. >> in america the people who cut your hair have to be licensed, but not the labs that test the supplements you take. two major groups representing the supplement industry decline to do on camera interviews, but in a statement the council for responsible nutrition told us we take seriously the allegations of fraud lent laboratory practices raised by this report. and they urge the fda to use its ample legal hort to take legal action. the natural products association also said it supports government action against any laboratories that may use improper testing methods. both groups stress the vast majority of supplements are safe. and that brings us back to total body formula and the people who say they have been sickened by supplements that were never properly tested.

>> so to this day and forever going forward you are going to worry about damage to your liver. >> right. >> your kidneys? >> right. >> your heart? >> that's right. >> all because of a vitamin. >> i would never have believed it if i hadn't gone through it myself. >> leerz something else you might not believe. the fda says it only has 22 full-time people at its headquarters supervising the $28 billion supplement industry, lester. >> are there particular categories of these supplements that folks should be more concerned about? >> excellent question. the fda says the biggest problems its found with weight loss form los angeles, muscle building supplements and those supplements that are supposed to help you in the bedroom. >> if you are taking some of these supplements, how do you find out their status? >> the best thing it do is check the fda web sites and it lists supplements it finds as dangerous after they're on the market. you can find a link to the fda tips and a tip to buying safe supplements on datelinenbc.com. >> chris, thank you very much. that's all for this edition