Banning Paraquat Would Prevent Nearly 200 Deaths from Suicide per Year in Taiwan

Banning Paraquat Would Prevent Nearly 200 Deaths from Suicide per Year in Taiwan

In early 2007, a 45-year-old male patient was admittedto an emergency department in Taipei; he had swalloweda mouthful of paraquat after an argument with his wife. Heanxiously asked the nurse whether he would die and saidthat he greatly regretted ingesting the pesticide. He died fromrespiratory failure three days later. Tragedies like this are alltoo common in Taiwan. Self-poisoning is the most commonlyused method in suicide attempts in Taiwan. In a study based onmortality data in 2006-2008, self-poisoning with paraquat causedat least 160 deaths a year, accounting for approximately half ofall self-poisoning deaths using pesticides where the name of theproduct was recorded. Recent estimates suggest that there arearound 200 paraquat self-poisoning deaths per year (Ministry ofHealth and Welfare, personal communication). Ingestion of aslittle as a tablespoonful of paraquat can be fatal, and there is noeffective antidote. The fatality of paraquat poisoning is around66%-92% in Taiwan, much higher than that of almost allother pesticides.