Crazy Gook Update - Detergent Gas Suicide Forces Hundreds to Flee Homes in Japan
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Detergent Gas Suicide Forces Hundreds to Flee Homes in Japan
Thursday, May 01, 2008
TOKYO - About 350 people fled their homes in northern Japan on Thursday to
escape poisonous fumes released by a neighbor who killed himself by mixing
detergent and other chemicals - the latest in a series of such suicides.
The panic in Otaru came just hours after national police urged Internet
providers to crack down on Web sites spurring a wave of detergent-related
suicides in which 50 people have reportedly died in the past month.
The rash of such suicides in Japan - which already has one of the world's
highest suicide rates - has triggered widespread concern because the
powerful fumes can seriously harm bystanders and rescuers.
In Otaru, on the northern island of Hokkaido, a 24-year-old man mixed the
chemicals in his house after midnight. He died and the gas - hydrogen
sulfide - escaped his home, and neighbors were alerted by the smell, a
Hokkaido police official said.
The man's 58-year-old mother, who was apparently overcome by the fumes, was
found unconscious nearby and was taken to a hospital. Police said she was
recovering.
About 350 neighbors fled to a nearby school playground where they stayed for
about two hours until the fumes dispersed, said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
Last week at least 90 people were sickened by fumes in southwestern Japan
when a teenage girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser
in her apartment.
Also Thursday, police in Kori in northern Japan arrested a farmer for
allegedly trying to kill his 82-year-old mother with the same gas by mixing
toilet cleaner with mothballs in a bucket.
The farmer, Nobuya Matsuno, was mixing the chemicals on Wednesday when his
80-year-old father caught him and called police, a Fukushima prefecture
police spokesman said, also on condition of anonymity because of policy.
Alarmed by the wave of detergent suicides, Japan's National Police Agency
urged Internet providers Wednesday to delete materials from Web sites
showing readers how to mix the chemicals, officials said Thursday. Some
sites reportedly provide "poison gas" warnings that viewers can print out
and hang outside their doors when they kill themselves.
The police request was the first action against the detergent suicides taken
by the Japanese government, which has announced the goal of cutting the
suicide rate by 20 percent in 10 years by reducing unemployment, boosting
workplace counseling and filtering Web sites that promote suicide.
Reports said more than 50 people have killed themselves by inhaling hydrogen
sulfide in the past month. Police say they have yet to compile data on such
deaths.
Seiji Yoshikawa, deputy head of the Internet Hot Line, which operates under
the guidelines of police, said the number of sites promoting detergent
suicides soared in April.
"They are rife on the Internet. Writing examples include 'you can die easily
and beautifully' and 'this is much easier than charcoal-burning suicide,"
Yoshikawa said, referring to a once-popular suicide method.
Hydrogen sulfide gas is colorless and characterized by an odor similar to
that of rotten eggs. When inhaled, it can lead to suffocation or brain
damage.
Annual suicides in Japan passed the 30,000 mark in 1998, near the height of
an economic slump that left many bankrupt, jobless and desperate.
A total of 32,155 people killed themselves in 2006, giving the country the
ninth highest suicide rate in the world, according to the government.
The government has earmarked $220 million for anti-suicide programs to help
those with depression and other mental conditions.