Some pesticides are more toxic to humans than previously thought and the World Health Organization should adjust its figures accordingly to reduce self-poisoning.
So says Andrew Dawson at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, who studied 7461 pesticide-suicides and attempted suicides.
Agricultural pesticides are the most common means of suicide worldwide, resulting in more than 250,000 deaths each year. In their 6-year study, Dawson's team found that, depending on the pesticide taken, fatality of cases arriving at two Sri Lankan hospitals varied between 0 and 42 per cent.
They found certain pesticides were far more toxic to humans than the WHO ranks them based on animal studies. They also discovered pesticides that are similarly effective in agricultural practice but vary in their toxicity to humans.
The WHO should incorporate the new data into their pesticide-toxicity classification, which informs policy decisions, to better address the public health problem of suicide, says Dawson.
Journal reference: PLoS Medicine, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000357
**Published in "New Scientist"
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