FED: Suicides taking the easy way out with exhaust fumes

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-1999
FED: Suicides taking the easy way out with exhaust fumes

BRISBANE, Feb 12 AAP - Increasing numbers of Australian men who kill themselves are
choosing to use car exhaust fumes because it's easy, a study shows.

A study of 30 patients receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment at a Sydney hospital after
surviving exposure to exhaust gas found that more than half chose the method because of its
"ease, painlessness and availability".

Prince of Wales Hospital consultant psychiatrists Michaela Skopek (Skopek) and Richard
Perkins said there was an urgent need to reduce access to this means of suicide, now the
second most common after hanging.

The psychiatrists said most cars on the road in Australia were still not fitted with
catalytic converters which minimised exhaust toxicity.

"Access to means is certainly one factor which affects the suicide rate," they said in an
article in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

"It has been shown that if the availability or lethality of a particular method is reduced,
not all individuals at risk of suicide will substitute another method, thus possibly reducing
the total suicide rate."

The authors found that most of the would-be suicides survived because of unexpected
discovery or failure of the method.

The most common trigger for the suicide attempts was marital or relationship discord. Half
of the patients had a history of previous mental illness and many had drug or alcohol
problems.

Twelve of the patients knew someone who had killed themselves by car exhaust fumes and
nearly half said they had been influenced by media portrayal, including reports of the suicide
of prominent men.

"Two-thirds of the patients admitted to spending minimal, if any, time planning their
suicidal act," the psychiatrists noted.

They said ways to reduce the popularity of car-exhaust asphyxiation could include modifying
exhaust pipes to impede the attachment of a hose and installation of engine idle cut-out
switches.

The motor vehicle industry was currently working with medical experts and the government to
address the issue, but it should be regarded with more urgency, they said.

AAP rr/wjf

KEYWORD: SUICIDE

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