Japan suicide fad crosses the pond +

Remember the wave of suicides that happened last year in Japan due to the toxic hydrogen sulfide mixture? Well, it has now officially traveled across the pond here to the U.S.

Turns out that there were over 500 deaths in Japan due to the mixture. Here in the states, there have been more than one case of the suicide attempt. In August of 2008, police found a car with a note on the side warning of gas. Inside the VW Beetle, they found a dead man. Later in the year, there was a man also found inside his car with a bucket containing a yellow substance. On the window, he left a note warning people of the compound by name.

It wasn’t until last month that a Texas doctor realized that these two cases were linked to what happened in Japan. Dr Paul Pepe, chief of emergency medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, then put out a warning to emergency workers that if they were not careful, they too could be a victum of the gases. Luckily the two cases here in the states have left a warning message. The bath sulfer that’s used in the Japanese version isn’t commonly available here. So the recipe has been changed to include a common insecticide.

The Japanese suicides became a popular item in the news due to the constant reporting. I can’t blame the news agencies because they are just doing their job, but it was an unfortunate side effect. If this story becomes news here in the states, I can see the trend continuing especially in these depressing times for our economy. What do you think?

Via Wired.

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