Cleaner vehicles lead to suicides drop
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2000-01-19
We all know that catalytic converters have a considerable impact on the amount of pollutants emitted from vehicle exhausts, but their introduction over the past decade or so has had an unexpected side benefit ... the number of men killing themselves by deliberately inhaling exhaust fumes has dropped dramatically.
A study by Dr. Mike McClure, a Fellow of Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists, has found that between 1990 and 1997, the number of male suicides dropped from 120 per million men to 103 per million.
The worst years for this form of suicide-caused by exposure to carbon monoxide gas-were in the 1970s and 1980s when car ownership increased by 45 per cent. When it became law in Britain to install catalytic converters on all new cars, the suicide rate from vehicle exhaust poisoning fell 61 per cent.
However, Dr McClure said that the introduction of the converters, which reduce the carbon monoxide content (among other pollutants) in exhaust fumes, could not "entirely explain" the reduction. In the paper published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, he said the buoyant national economy and high employment levels had also helped to reduce the number of suicides. Improved suicide prevention services were also a factor.
Carbon monoxide can be a threat, of course, to drivers or passengers with no intention of killing themselves and it's important to have exhaust systems regularly checked for leaks that might enter the passenger compartment. It's also not a good idea to run the car heater or air conditioning system with the car parked and the windows tightly shut. Always leave a window slightly open in such circumstances.
Part of the menace of carbon monoxide, or CO, is that it's completely odorless and can kill within minutes. The gas mimics the behavior of oxygen while withholding its benefits. When inhaled, it enters the bloodstream, replacing the oxygen molecules found on the critical blood component hemoglobin and depriving the heart and brain of the oxygen they need.
Unfortunately, the symptoms may be similar to the flu or food poisoning causing headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, confusion, and breathing difficulty.
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