Japanese Girl Commits Suicide With Detergent, 90 Others Sickened

Laundry detergent mixed with a household cleanser used by a 14-year old Japanese girl to committee suicide also sickened 90 other people inside her apartment building.

10 people were hospitalized in Konan, Japan after deadly hydrogen sulfide gas escaped the 14-year old’s bathroom window and entered neighboring apartments.

The girl’s death on Wednesday night followed a string of similar deaths in Japan, where the country’s alarmingly high suicide rate ranks ninth highest in the world.

The methods being used in the latest string of suicides has officials alarmed because of the danger that bystanders can be hurt.

According to police, the 14-year old girl followed the pattern of other recent suicides when she mixed detergent with a liquid cleanser producing a deadly release of hydrogen sulfide gas. When inhaled, the hydrogen sulfide gas can lead to suffocation.

Early Thursday, a 31-year old man outside Tokyo killed himself inside a car after mixing detergent and bath salts. A similar case in Nagoya, Japan was reported when a 42-year old woman was found dead in a bathtub. Reports said a sign outside the bathroom where she was found read, “Poisonous gas being emitted. Caution.”

While police say they have not tallied the number of detergent-related suicides, media reports suggest it has reached about 30 so far this year. A Tokyo-based group specializing in halting suicides blamed easy access to information teaching people how to do it for the recent string of deaths.

Government officials in Japan set a goal last year of cutting the suicide rate by 20 percent over the next 10 years through such steps as reducing unemployment, boosting workplace counseling and filtering Web sites that promote suicide.

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