Case fatality of agricultural pesticides after self-poisoning in Sri Lanka: a prospective cohort study thelancet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thelancet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MUMBAI: India’s 2011 ban on endosulfan may have contributed to almost 30,000 fewer suicides by ingestion of pesticide, suggests a recent analysis.
Researchers estimated what suicide rates may have been in 2011-14 based on the previous years’ trends, and then compared those projections to the actual numbers for that period. They found 20,146 fewer male and 8,418 fewer female suicides by pesticide than expected.
Much of the decline, though, was offset by a parallel increase in suicides by hanging and other methods of poisoning, the study found, resulting in a much smaller dip in the overall cases. Among men, 92% of the decline in pesticide suicides was offset by an increase in other methods, especially hanging.