Japanese fad: rotten-egg suicide gassing
“Traditionally” Japanese suicide with been done in the past couple of decades with carbon monoxide –poisoning with leaving a small, burning, charcoal grill in a confined space or commonly inside a rented automobile. However, there has been a new fad in the past few months to mix Japanese Sunpole® toilet cleaner and bath salts to produce deadly poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas. The problem is that poisonous hydrogen sulfide–the rotten-egg gas–produces a lot of collateral damage killing the rescuers… family members, firefighters, and police officers. It even endangers people in other apartments below the suicide room since the gas is heavier than air.
Couple suspected of gassing themselves to death with hydrogen sulfide
Mainichi Daily News, April 17, 2008 KITAKYUSHU – A couple is suspected of fatally gassing themselves in a suicide pact by mixing detergents in their car and generating toxic hydrogen sulfide, police said Thursday. The case follows a spate of 26 incidents in which 27 people have allegedly killed themselves by mixing detergents and generating hydrogen sulfide since the beginning of this year, police said. In some cases, family members or neighbors also suffered poisoning…more…
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April 17th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
2-ch says: 「練炭自殺に代わる、新しい自殺方法が開発された。火 をおこす必要はない。練炭よりも簡単」 “A new suicide method has been developed to replace Briquettes! Do not need to kindle a fire– Easier [and cleaner] than charcoal.”
May 1st, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Thanks for putting pictures of the 2 chemicals on your website. Now all the Gaijins can join the fun too… Atleast this trend has allowed me to get to work on time as people have stopped jumping in front of the trains. Have you ever seen a jumper? In my years in Tokyo I have seen it 4 times and everytime they survived (at least long enough to scream the whole bloody time we waited for them to be cleared). What a dumb way to go. But not as dumb as 3yen for posting the magic solutions. I hope you get sued when some moron murders his neighbors trying to kill himself!
May 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Besides the fact the less common chemical is being not sold any longer in Japan, the combination has posted in English on the International Herald Tribune, JapanToday and Japan Probe as well thousands of times on 2Ch and Japanese websites. It’s not a state secret, sheesh.
May 4th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Bloomberg published an article with a more detailed ‘recipe’ entitled: “Toilet Cleaner, Bath Liquid Spark New Wave of Suicides in Japan” by Sachiko Sakamaki and Stuart Biggs May 3 — Bloomberg.com .