Charcoal-burning suicide

Charcoal-burning suicide is suicide by burning charcoal in a closed room or area. Death occurs by carbon monoxide poisoning.

For information on methods of suicide intervention, see Suicide prevention.

Mechanism of action
Main article: Carbon monoxide poisoning

As the charcoal burns, the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO), produced by the incomplete combustion of carbon, gradually increases. CO concentrations of as little as one part per thousand can be fatal if inhaled over a period of two hours.[1]

History

As a method of suicide it is mentioned by Eugène Sue in The Wandering Jew (1844).[2]

In July 1994, two students of Taipei First Girls' High School ended their lives by charcoal-burning in a hotel in Su'ao, Yilan with a note that did not state the reason clearly, even though that it was suspected in some mass media that they were a lesbian couple.[3] In November 1998, a middle-aged woman in Hong Kong took her own life using this method inside her small, sealed bedroom. She had a chemical engineering background.[4] Hong Kong was suffering from an economic depression at the time, and suicide in general was increasing. After the details of this suicide were highly publicised by local mass media, many others killed themselves in this way (an example of the Werther effect). Within two months, charcoal-burning had become the third major suicide killer in Hong Kong.[5] Charcoal-burning suicide accounted for 1.7% of Hong Kong suicides in 1998 and 10.1% in 1999.[6] By 2001, it had surpassed hanging as the second most-common method of suicide in Hong Kong (second only to jumping), accounting for about 25% of all suicide deaths.[5] The method has since spread to mainland China, Taiwan and Japan.[7]

Beginning in 2003, authorities in Japan have seen a series of group suicides, committed by strangers who met in suicide chat rooms online. Such a group will typically use sleeping pills and charcoal stoves in a van parked in a remote area.[8]

On 26 July 2006, 16-year-old Brazilian musician Vinícius Gageiro Marques, known by his alias Yoñlu, locked himself in his bathroom with two barbecue grills, and posted on a forum asking for help killing himself. While some people in the thread pleaded him to stop, others gave him the advice he wanted. A Canadian online friend of Marques's learned of the suicide attempt and called the Brazilian authorities. Although the police and paramedics were able to enter the apartment and clear the smoke, Marques was pronounced dead after multiple attempts at resuscitation.[9]

On 9 March 2007, Brad Delp, the lead singer of the American rock band Boston, killed himself using this method.[10]

On 18 December 2017, Kim Jong-hyun, a member of the South Korean idol group SHINee, was found unconscious in a Gangnam residential hotel. He was later pronounced dead in the ICU. The police ultimately ruled his death a suicide through the earlier text messages sent to his sister, after the discovery of charcoal briquette remnants in a frying pan at the scene.[11][12]

On October 16, 2018, an ex-member of GNZ48, Du Yuwei ended her life at the age of 19 using this method.[13]

References
  1. Staff. "Carbon Monoxide and Health Effects". The Engineering Toolbox. engineeringtoolbox.com. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  2. "Father Arsene did cut his stick; that evening, he and his old wife suffocated themselves with charcoal." Ch 3. The Carouse Full Text
  3. 管仁健 (1 June 2012), 你不知道的台灣．校園奇案, 文經社, ISBN 9789576636691
  4. Chan KP, Yip PS, Au J, Lee DT (January 2005). "Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong". Br J Psychiatry. 186 (1): 67–73. doi:10.1192/bjp.186.1.67. PMID 15630126.
  5. Media coverage boosts 'charcoal burning' suicides — 28 February 2003 — New Scientist
  6. Leung CM, Chung WS, So EP (May 2002). "Burning charcoal: an indigenous method of committing suicide in Hong Kong". J Clin Psychiatry. 63 (5): 447–50. doi:10.4088/JCP.v63n0512. PMID 12019670.
  7. Taking the easy way out?, South China Morning Post, 9 January 2005
  8. Samuels, David (1 May 2007). "Let's Die Together". The Atlantic. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  9. "Breve história de Yoñlu". Domicílio Literário. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  10. https://www.guitarworld.com/news/brad-delp-details-emerge-about-his-tragic-suicide
  11. "SHINee Singer, K-pop Star Kim-Jonghyun Dead at 27 of Possible Suicide". 18 December 2017.
  12. Wang, Amy. "K-pop fans 'devastated' after SHINee singer Jonghyun dies in possible suicide". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  13. "又一女星患抑郁症离世，曾被指插足黄嘉伟婚姻，年仅19岁". www.yule.sohu.com (in Chinese). 20 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
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