British scientists’ work on pesticides helps to reduce toll of suicides

Asanka Pushpakumara is lucky to be alive. After his fiancée left him, the 24-year-old from rural Sri Lanka swallowed some of the pesticides normally used on his family farm. But the toxins he downed were not powerful enough to kill him, thanks in large part to a joint Sri Lankan-british initiative to combat one of the most common methods of suicide globally.

He is one of an estimated 93,000 Sri Lankans who are alive today because of the project, which has led to the Sri Lankan government gradually banning the most lethal pesticides.

Working with British academics, who measured the impact, they have shown the policy to have caused a dramatic reduction in suicide rates.

Many millions more young lives could be saved if the intervention was extended globally, said experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday in a major report on suicide.

The report says 800,000 people die by suicide each year (one every 40 seconds), making it the leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 29 years after road traffic accidents.

Hanging, pesticides and firearms are the most common methods, with an estimated 150,000 occurring each year from pesticide self-poisoning alone. Had Mr Pushpakumara lived in neighbouring India, the chances are he would have died, as the sale of

pesticides is not regulated there. But in Sri Lanka, the most toxic pesticides have gradually been removed from the shelves. As a result, the country’s suicide rate has dropped from 57 to just 17 per 100,000.

Mr Pushpakumara is typical of those affected. From a poor rural district in north Sri Lanka, he helps his family grow corn, sesame and soya from a tiny smallholding.

“I can see the world,” he says gesturing to his phone. “But I’m poor. In the days we farm and in the night we take it in turns to make sure the elephants don’t trample the fields. That’s my life.”

The issue of suicide is clouded with myths and one of the most common is that those who are suicidal are determined to die or that it’s always a reasoned and planned act.

In fact, says Prof Michael Eddleston of the University of Edinburgh – the lead researcher on the Sri Lankan project – most attempts are impulsive and occur in a flash of frustration or anger. That’s why making it more difficult to access lethal methods can dramatically lower suicide rates.

“We know that suicidal impulses are usually short-lived,” said Prof Eddleston. “If the person can be helped to survive this short period of high risk – by restricting the sale of the most lethal toxins – then they usually do not try again.”

For Mr Pushpakumara, that moment came when the woman he was to marry left him because of his poverty. “She called me to say she was sorry but that she could not stay with me. She said it was because I had nothing. It was then I took a drink [of pesticide].”

Since the Fifties, when the Green Revolution brought highly hazardous pesticides into small-scale farming, it is estimated that more than 14million premature deaths have been linked to pesticide self-poisoning.

Although highly regulated in most of the developed world, lethal pesticides are as easy to purchase as alcohol in much of the developing world, sold in compact bottles to smallholders for a few pounds.

“The worst of these pesticides are nearly as dangerous as chemical nerve agents,” says Prof Eddleston.

The research led by Prof Eddleston in conjunction with the Sri Lankan authorities and others has been instrumental in establishing clear evidence of cause and effect. This has led to regulatory action being taken in Bangladesh, South Korea and other countries shows a similar impact, prompting the WHO yesterday to call for tighter regulation worldwide.

“The intervention that has the most imminent potential to bring down the number of suicides is restricting access to pesticides that are used for self-poisoning,” it said.

Mr Pushpakumara continues to farm in Sri Lanka. His circumstances have not changed but he now has much greater support from his family and local primary healthcare services.

“Perhaps I took my eye off him because he was the oldest,” says his mother. “Now he has our full attention and it’s a pleasure. He has the most beautiful singing voice of the family.”

‘The worst of these pesticides are nearly as dangerous as chemical nerve agents’