Impact of Sri Lanka’s pesticide restrictions on suicide rates (1989-2024): an updated interrupted time series analysis

Résumé fourni par la source

This research project will investigate the long-term impact of Sri Lanka’s bans on acutely toxic pesticides on national suicide mortality. Since 1984, Sri Lanka has banned a number of acutely toxic pesticides. By 1995, all WHO Class I pesticides were banned, followed by endosulphan in 1995, and, later, a phased ban on a range of WHO Class II pesticides between 2008 and 2011. These policies, a core part of Sri Lanka’s suicide prevention strategy, is credited with a dramatic reduction in pesticide poisoning deaths and the overall suicide rate. An impact analysis comparing the period before any pesticide bans with the period during which the series of bans were implemented estimated that 93,000 lives were saved between 1995 and 2015 (Knipe, Gunnell et al. 2017). Ten years have passed since the previous estimation of the number of lives saved as a result of this regulatory action, and the long-term effectiveness of Sri Lanka’s award-winning national pesticide act and policy for suicide prevention is yet to be investigated. Therefore, in this updated analysis we will re-examine Sri Lanka’s progress over an extended follow-up period and reassess the potential number of lives saved through the implementation of targeted, phased bans on acutely toxic pesticides.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.