Education, awareness can help prevent suicides

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

I have been reading lately that Guyana has the highest rate of suicides in the world. Most of these cases involved ingesting of insecticides or pesticides. The word insecticides or pesticides refers to the destruction of humans.

However, mankind is now fighting the battle with chemical pesticides to solve their problems. All pesticides contain the active ingredients, that is, the chemicals that do the killing of people. They should be carefully controlled by the distributors and Government.

The country should have its regulatory and technical requirements enshrined in law, which should take full account for all chemicals imported and economic conditions, and literacy levels, etc.

What appear usually as the drug labels warn distributors of the potential risks involved in selling to underage children. Our country does not have adequate legislative and regulatory infrastructure for pesticides.

So anyone can purchase the drugs and commit suicide. Citizens of Guyana should seek assistance from various international organisations to help draw up legally binding codes to be implemented to help prevent suicides.

The Code of Conduct on the distribution and use of pesticides (1990), which provides guidelines covering some of the important issues, is not being adhered to in our country and Government.

As such, banned pesticides known as the dirty dozen continue to enter the country. In particular, the code of practice which includes the principle of prior informed consent, whereby if a government bans a pesticide, it will notify the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), which in turn will convey the information to the designated national authority in the other regions.

No pesticides in this category should be exported into the country. Pesticides may enter the human body through inhalation, absorption through the skin or by being ingested.

A good awareness, training, education and understanding on the part of the Government would go some way in reducing the risk of suicide.

 Yours faithfully,

Mohamed Khan

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