EPICANTHUS

A suicide technique that uses a mixture of household products to produce a deadly hydrogen sulfide gas became a grisly fad in Japan last year. Now it’s slowly seeping into the United States over the internet, according to emergency workers, who are alarmed at the potential for innocent casualties.

[The graphic that accompanies this post comes from a Japanese website 3yen.com]

The first sign that the technique was migrating to the United States came in August, when  a 23-year-old California man was found dead in his car behind a Pasadena shopping center. The  VW Beetle’s doors were locked, the windows rolled up and a warning sign had been posted in one of the windows.

The 517 self-inflicted deaths by hydrogen sulfide poisoning this year in 2008 are were part of a bigger, grimmer story: Nearly 34,000 Japanese killed themselves last year, according to the Japanese national police. That’s the second-highest toll ever in a country where the suicide rate is ninth highest in the world and more than double that of the USA, the World Health Organization says.

• Read This First
• National Suicide Prevention Hotline
• Pasadena Man Used Household Chems in Suicide
• Suicide Epidemic Grips Japan
• Rotten Egg Suicide Gassing

H/T Babamoto, WIRED, Kevin Poulsen