The Increase of Chemical Suicide in United States and Its Effect on First Responders

Chemical suicide is a growing problem all around the world. This form of suicide was created in Japan, but now it is growing rapidly across the United States in recent years. People committing this type of suicide are looking to kill themselves, and also may want to harm or kill first responders in the process as well. This puts a large amount of people in danger in the immediate area where the chemicals are located. These situations might not be clear to first responders upon arrival and could cause injury or death if they are not wearing proper personal protective equipment.

Chemical suicides became prevalent in the United States around 2008. Since then, the number of suicides has been rising faster as the years go by. These forms of suicides started in Japan. There were thousands of cases that were reported involving these chemical suicides. It became a known problem around 2007 and has been steadily rising since then. This form of suicide from Japan became known in the United States through people’s use of the internet. “In 2008 in the United States, first responders responded to three incidents; in 2009, there were nine incidents; in 2010, there were more than 30 incidents.” (Oreshan III/Stevens, 2011). The numbers from 2010 to present day have risen as well. These numbers are only the recorded chemical suicides. There are still a large number of unreported chemical suicides in the United States and the number keeps growing.

“Chemical suicide, sometimes called detergent suicide, involves mixing common household chemicals to create deadly hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas, which can quickly reach lethal concentrations in confined spaces.” (Oreshan III/Stevens, 2011). This gas is colorless and also has a very foul smell of sulfur. ...

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...e started very soon after the person is exposed, it will be more effective.

To summarize, chemical suicide is a rapidly growing problem in the united states since 2008. When first responders respond to a call for a possible chemical suicide, they all have to approach with extreme caution and notice their surroundings. Size up and isolation and protection of the fire scene is very important to think about. Looking around the scene for opened containers and buckets that could possibly be inside the car or building is very important. There will be many different agencies on scene and that will just add to the number of people that could possibly get hurt or have to be decontaminated. Being cautious, knowing the signs of chemical suicides, and being ready to handle the situation at any given time are very big factors that first responders have to think about everyday.