Lead toxicosis is the most common form of heavy metal toxicity in birds and is now probably the most frequent poisoning induced by a contaminant in avian species worldwide [ 1].
However, current study found that most children ingested the poison and it had been the most frequent route of poisoning.
The most frequent cause of poisoning in our study was organophosphorus pesticide (n = 24; 75%).
The three most frequent suicide methods were poisoning (45.2 %); hanging/strangulation (24.3 %) and firearm use (11.2 %).
The most frequent source of self-poisoning was medicinal overdose, in contrast to older studies which report pesticide ingestion as the most common substances used [ 5], but similar to findings of other more recent Sri Lankan studies [ 1, 14].
Since pesticide poisoning is most frequent in rural community of Sri Lanka and patterns of poisoning are likely to change over time, the children of rural Sri Lanka are likely to show different poisoning patterns.
Epidemiologic studies in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua indicate that organophosphate and carbamate insecticides are the most frequent source of acute pesticide poisoning in people of all ages (Bovi de De Pascuale et al. 1995; Wesseling et al. 1997, 2005).
Self-poisoning was the most frequent reason for their current admission, which was to be expected in a hospital-based sample.
There were no suicides by poisoning in the NAO, whereas suicide by poisoning was the second most frequent suicide method among females (14.6 %) and overall (4.6 %) in Russia (Table 1).
Poisoning was the second most frequent suicide method: Norway (24%), Sweden (29%) and Denmark (31%; p=0.26).
Tóth et al. reported that interpersonal conflict was found to be the most frequent precipitating factor for suicide attempts by deliberate self-poisoning in Hungary and also that male suicide attempters with interpersonal conflicts had lower levels of depression [ 14].
