Hidden hazards in bodybuilding products story from the Boston Globe.

"Eighteen-year-old Fidah Salem did not know anything about the ingredients listed on the 4 1/2-pound container of Cell-Tech Hardcore, but he liked the nutritional supplement’s promise: “packs on muscle strength.’’

So he persuaded his mother, Paula Smith, to spend $100 on it and other products last week at the GNC store at South Shore Plaza in Braintree.

Smith said she and her son did not know the US Food and Drug Administration recently warned against the use of some bodybuilding supplements - though not Cell-Tech Hardcore specifically - saying they might contain anabolic steroids, which are illegal.

“A bunch of my friends use [supplements], so I thought I’d try,’’ Salem said. “It gives you muscle and gets you bigger without shooting steroids.’’

While much attention has been paid to steroid use among professional athletes, teenagers are often drawn to sports performance products that advertise similarly dramatic results. There are hundreds of over-the-counter items available locally, such as Anabolic Halo, a powder touted as promoting “chilling gains in muscle size and strength,’’ and Jack3d, which is said to induce “ultra-intense muscle-gorging strength.’’ Those and other supplements are sold with virtually no oversight by the FDA.

“What we’re saying is avoid anything that sounds like it has the equivalent of illegal steroids in it, because quite possibly it does,’’ Levy said.

Jack3d, made by USP Labs, trumpets its ability to give users “the mad aggressive desire and ability to lift more weight, pump more reps, and have crazy lasting energy along with sick muscle-engorging pumps.’’ Rick Quinn, a lawyer for USP Labs, acknowledged that such assertions are common and conceded the supplement industry can be “shady.’’ But despite the hype, Quinn said, the company’s products are made “legally and naturally.’’

Cell-Tech Hardcore is sold under the name MuscleTech, a brand produced by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. in Ontario, Canada. Iovate officials could not be reached by phone and a customer service number went unanswered. The company also makes Anabolic Halo and voluntarily recalled its Hydroxycut dietary supplement earlier this year after the FDA found it posed a “severe potentially life-threatening hazard to some users.’’

Safety questions about bodybuilding supplements have led to the emergence of at-home steroid tests aimed at parents and schools. Phamatech Inc., based in San Diego, began marketing its At Home Steroid Test in the Boston area recently. Phamatech said the $79.99 kit requires a urine sample, which must be sent to its lab for testing. It says the test can identify the “11 most commonly abused steroids’’ with 99 percent accuracy within five to seven days. (The FDA said it has not tested the company’s assertions.)"