Carbon monoxide poisoning suicide

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Health notice This article is about suicide. For those at risk, there is a wide network of offers of help in which ways out are shown. In acute emergencies, the telephone counseling and the European emergency number 112 can be reached continuously and free of charge. After an initial crisis intervention , qualified referrals can be made to suitable counseling centers on request.

Suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning describes a type of suicide in which the air is enriched with carbon monoxide (CO) in a closed room . Gasoline-powered internal combustion engines and charcoal fires are mostly used as CO sources for suicides. Running a car engine in the garage has been less common since 2008, as modern catalytic converters mean that only lower CO concentrations are achieved.

Mechanism of action

Incomplete combustion of carbon-containing substances increases the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) steadily in closed rooms. The poisonous effect does not take place via a lowering of the oxygen concentration (almost 21 percent by volume O 2 in fresh, dry air ), but via a comparatively low proportion of highly toxic CO. If CO-polluted air is inhaled for a longer period of time, concentration values ​​around a tenth of a volume percent carbon monoxide are sufficient to be fatal. The incomplete combustion of carbon creates carbon monoxide, which binds strongly to hemoglobin , quickly reducing the ability of the blood to supply oxygen to the body. This leads to death from hypoxia caused by carbon monoxide intoxication . Survivors (e.g. through rescue measures after being found early) mostly need intensive care medicine and often suffer permanent brain damage.

According to the findings of the Federal Center for Health Education , charcoal barbecues (especially disposable barbecues) are currently used most frequently in Germany to carry out suicides through carbon monoxide poisoning. People who use this method light barbecues in smaller rooms (tents, automobile cabins etc.) in order to generate the gas concentration required to cause death. In order to prevent smoke or gas from escaping (and thus a risk to third parties or a drop in the gas concentration below the lethal concentration), according to the observations of the investigating police officers, cracks on the frames of windows and doors, undersides of doors, keyholes, etc. are often made with sealing tape and masked like that. This agent is also used quite often in the context of group suicides: for example, the suicide of three teenagers by causing carbon monoxide poisoning with the help of disposable barbecues in a tent in 2011 or the suicide of three women in one caused a sensation and lively coverage in the press Log cabin in Northern Hesse in 2014.

Suicide using charcoal

Burning charcoal in a sealed room causes lethal carbon monoxide intoxication. This type of suicide endangers the rescue workers and relatives who are found.

Although this suicide method was mentioned in Eugène Sue's The Eternal Jew as early as 1844 , the procedure was not recorded in Wataru Tsurumi's 1993 work, Complete Handbook of Suicide (German edition not yet available), originally published in Japanese . Tsurumi's writing was better known in Asia than Sue's.

In November 1998, a middle-aged Hong Kong woman killed herself using a charcoal grill in her small, well-enclosed bedroom. At that time, Hong Kong was suffering from the “ Asian Crisis ” and the suicide rate was generally increasing. After details of that suicide had been covered extensively in the local media , there were many imitators. In two months, charcoal suicide became the third most common form of suicide in Hong Kong. It was responsible for 1.7% of the cases in 1998 and 10.1% in 1999. In 2001 it had ousted hanging as the second most common method (after jumping from high-rise buildings), accounting for about 25% of all suicides. Since then, the method has also been practiced in the rest of China as well as in Taiwan and Japan.

The mass media play a decisive role both in the dissemination of the method and in the preventive area. In order to avoid further cases, the Hong Kong government initiated the replacement of traditional charcoal grills with electric grills. Some non-governmental organizations worked with charcoal traders to spread the message “treasure your life” by putting stickers on the packaging.

Suicide with the help of car exhaust fumes

Between 1980 and 1987, an average of eight suicides a year were committed in the area around Cologne with the help of car exhaust fumes. By 1999 the incidence had decreased to one death per year. The reason for the decline was the fact that cars were fitted with catalytic converters. Due to the now low CO content in the exhaust gases, lethal carbon monoxide intoxication is no longer to be expected.

Suicide using a chemical reaction between two acids

If the two acids sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) and formic acid (CH 2 O 2 ) are mixed, water (H 2 O) and carbon monoxide are formed in an exothermic reaction ; this reaction has already been used to attempt suicide.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ That's right: suicide in the garage . In: The time . No. 23/2008
  2. ↑ Cross table exercise time vs. ppm (English)
  3. ^ WS Chung, CM Leung: Carbon monoxide poisoning as a new method of suicide in Hong Kong . In: Psychiatr Serv . tape 52 , no. 6 , June 2001, p. 836-837 , doi : 10.1176 / appi.ps.52.6.836 , PMID 11376237 ( psychiatryonline.org ).
  4. ↑ Life is precious . (English) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / app1.chinadaily.com.cn
  5. ↑ "Suizid: One way ticket to hell", in: Der Spiegel from October 1, 2011 .
  6. ^ "Autopsy confirms signs. Suicide in a log cabin: Carbon monoxide death" , in: Offenbacher Post online from January 31, 2014.
  7. ↑ Two cases of triple suicide using charcoal. In: Forensic Medicine . Volume 21, No. 2, April 2011, pp. 111-115. doi: 10.1007 / s00194-010-0727-8
  8. ↑ The Eternal Jew. Chapter 3. Complete Book (French)
  9. ↑ KP Chan, PS Yip, J. Au, DT Lee: Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong . In: Br J Psychiatry . tape 186 , no. 1 , January 2005, p. 67-73 , doi : 10.1192 / bjp.186.1.67 , PMID 15630126 ( rcpsych.org ).
  10. ↑ a b Media coverage boosts 'charcoal burning' suicides. In: New Scientist. February 28, 2003. (English)
  11. ↑ CM Leung, WS Chung, EP So: Burning charcoal: an indigenous method of committing suicide in Hong Kong . In: J Clin Psychiatry . tape 63 , no. 5 , May 2002, pp. 447-450 , doi : 10.4088 / JCP.v63n0512 , PMID 12019670 .
  12. ↑ SS Chang, SS Kwok et al.: The association of trends in charcoal-burning suicide with Google search and newspaper reporting in Taiwan: a time series analysis. In: Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. [Electronic publication before printing] April 2015, ISSN  1433-9285 , doi: 10.1007 / s00127-015-1057-7 . PMID 25859754 .
  13. ↑ C. Oehme, R. Penning: Suicide through carbon monoxide poisoning using the charcoal grill. In: Forensic Medicine. Volume 21, No. 2, April 2011, pp. 102-105.
  14. ↑ T. Riepert, R. Iffland, H. Käferstein: Decline in suicides due to car exhaust fumes after the introduction of catalyst technology. In: Forensic Medicine. 12, 2002, p. 24. doi: 10.1007 / s00194-002-0127-9
  15. ↑ M. Santamaria, CG Erker et al.: Carbon monoxide intoxication with suicidal intent through a mixture of sulfuric acid and formic acid. In: Emergency + Rescue Medicine. 6/2013, pp. 457-459. doi: 10.1007 / s10049-013-1724-8