{"id":29344,"date":"2025-06-10T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29344"},"modified":"2025-06-10T07:25:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:25:40","slug":"a-killer-within-easy-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29344","title":{"rendered":"A Killer Within Easy Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The tiny nation of Suriname, on South America\u2019s Atlantic coast, has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. A majority of those deaths involve a single substance: paraquat, a pesticide widely used for weed control that is lethal to humans in amounts as small as one swallow.<\/p>\n

Pesticides are among the leading means of suicide in agricultural areas of developing nations, implicated in more than 100,000 deaths annually. Yet for years, their threat has been largely overlooked.<\/p>\n

Now, a handful of researchers and philanthropists are pushing to change that, arguing that restricting access to the most lethal pesticides could be one of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to save lives.<\/p>\n

Paraquat, one of the deadliest pesticides still on the market, is among their top targets. It is quickly absorbed by the body and has no antidote. Even a small dose causes multi-organ failure, though death may take hours or days.<\/p>\n

That often leaves time for people who ingest it in a moment of despair to come to regret their decision, according to Dr. Esther Fong, an emergency physician at Suriname\u2019s busiest hospital. \u201cYou see the death written on their foreheads,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you cannot do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramedics, police officers and teachers see paraquat\u2019s reach as inescapable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to find, and most every house has one bottle or more,\u201d said Ashna Badrising, an English instructor at the E.H. Cabell School.<\/p>\n

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The tiny nation of Suriname, on South America\u2019s Atlantic coast, has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. A majority of those deaths involve a single substance: paraquat, a pesticide widely used for weed control that is lethal to humans in amounts as small as one swallow.Pesticides are among the leading means of suicide in agricultural areas of developing nations, implicated in more than 100,000 deaths annually. Yet for years, their threat has been largely overlooked.Now, a handful of researchers and philanthropists are pushing to change that, arguing that restricting access to the most lethal pesticides could be one of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to save lives.Paraquat, one of the deadliest pesticides still on the market, is among their top targets. It is quickly absorbed by the body and has no antidote. Even a small dose causes multi-organ failure, though death may take hours or days.That often leaves time for people who ingest it in a moment of despair to come to regret their decision, according to Dr. Esther Fong, an emergency physician at Suriname\u2019s busiest hospital. \u201cYou see the death written on their foreheads,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you cannot do anything about it.\u201dParamedics, police officers and teachers see paraquat\u2019s reach as inescapable.\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to find, and most every house has one bottle or more,\u201d said Ashna Badrising, an English instructor at the E.H. Cabell School.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29346,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29347,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29344\/revisions\/29347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}