Giving Compass' Take:

• Robert Wiblin discusses The Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention, which is working to help prevent suicides in agricultural communities in Asia and Africa.

• Can a strategy of harm reduction work? There have been an unusual amount of deaths over the years from people ingesting pesticides (one-fifth of all suicides in the world), but Utyasheva's organization is trying to make sure the most lethal substances aren't readily available.

• This does not quite address the mental health issue at hand. Here's why that also needs to be a global funding priority.

How people kill themselves varies enormously depending on which means are most easily available. In the United States, suicide by firearm stands out. In Hong Kong, where most people live in high rise buildings, jumping from a height is more common. And in some countries in Asia and Africa with many poor agricultural communities, the leading means is drinking pesticide.

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of this issue before. And yet, of the 800,000 people who kill themselves globally each year 20% die from pesticide self-poisoning.

Research suggests most people who try to kill themselves with pesticides reflect on the decision for less than 30 minutes, and that less than 10% of those who don’t die the first time around will try again.

Unfortunately, the fatality rate from pesticide ingestion is 40% to 70%.

Having such dangerous chemicals near people’s homes is therefore an enormous public health issue not only for the direct victims, but also the partners and children they leave behind.

Fortunately researchers like Dr. Leah Utyasheva have figured out a very cheap way to massively reduce pesticide suicide rates.

In 2016, Leah co-founded the first organization focused on this problem — The Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention — which recently received an incubation grant from GiveWell. She’s a human rights expert and law reform specialist, and has participated in drafting legal aid, human rights, gender equality, and anti-discrimination legislation in various countries across Europe and Canada.

Read the full article about the organization trying to reduce suicide rates in Asia and Africa by Robert Wiblin at 80000 Hours.