BMJ  2004;328:42-44 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.42

Education and debate

Self poisoning with pesticides

¹ Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, ² Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Centre, Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China

WHO's recent recommendations on reducing deaths from self harm will not help cut the high death rate from self poisoning in the Asia Pacific region

Self inflicted violence accounts for around half of the 1.6 million violent deaths that occur every year worldwide.¹ About 63% of global deaths from self harm occur in the Asia Pacific region. Most of these deaths occur in rural areas, where easy access to highly toxic pesticides turns many impulsive acts of self poisoning into suicide. The World Health Organization's recent World Report on Violence and Health recommends that suicide prevention strategies focus on the identification and treatment of people with mental disorders.² However, as impulsive self poisoning is often not associated with mental illness, this may not be the most effective approach for rural Asia.

Self harm is a major problem in many nations in the Asia Pacific region, from the Pacific islands of Fiji and Samoa, to Asian nations as different as China and Sri Lanka.³ Suicide accounted for 71% (512 000/722 000) of all violent deaths in . . . [Full text of this article]

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