Epidemiology of coronial deaths from pesticide ingestion in Australia

- Subgroups within the population were at greater risk of self-harm, with risk being greater in those who were older, male, from lower SES areas, and outer regional areas.
- Differences were found in demographics between suicides and cases of poisoning with pesticides.
- Case densities were greater in regional areas, but lower in cities and remote regions.
- Many cases of self-harm occurred in occurred in cities with agrochemicals.

Pesticides in Australia are tightly regulated but it is unknown how this may affect the distribution of misuse and self-harm across Australia, both spatially and within subgroups in the population. We performed an observational study to examine spatial differences in suicide/deliberate poisonings with pesticides in Australia. We examined Coronial inquest cases of self-harm by pesticide ingestion for the years 2001-2013 (n = 209). Coronial cases were older, more likely to be male, have lower SES status and live in outer regional areas as opposed to cities when compared to the general population. Case densities (cases/100,000 population) were lower in large capital cities and higher in agricultural areas: despite this half the cases occurred in major cities.