A starkly rising suicide toll is linked to toxic industrial salts, according to newly obtained statistics – a trend noticed years ago in at least two provinces by pathologists who have urged government officials to restrict sales of the substances by online vendors.
Data from Statistics Canada and British Columbia coroners’ databases provided this month in response to requests from The Globe and Mail show that roughly 66 suicide deaths within Canada over the past five years can be attributed to the substances, mostly sodium nitrite. No information was available about how the people who died had acquired them.
Pathologists in Ontario and Quebec have called on provincial and federal governments to review the public availability of sodium nitrite. But Canada has not announced new measures to contain its trade. U.S. politicians, meanwhile, have recently introduced laws intended to better regulate the chemical and keep it from being misused.
Sodium nitrite has safe and legitimate uses, including in the preparation of cured meats, but it can be lethal if consumed in a highly pure form. The substance has come to public attention in Canada because of the arrest earlier this year of Kenneth Law, a one-time chef from Mississauga who was charged last week with 14 counts of second-degree murder.
Mr. Law allegedly operated websites that sold and shipped the salt and other products to people seeking information about suicide: “Packages received could contain hoods, masks, tubing and/or sodium nitrite,” police said in a news release last week.
Mr. Law is also charged with the same number of counts of aiding suicide. The charges all relate to 14 deaths in Ontario that he allegedly caused or assisted. Detectives say they are at the beginning of a sprawling international investigation that will probe more than 1,200 packages Mr. Law shipped to recipients globally, including an estimated 160 Canadian addresses.
Statscan data show that, in 2017, there were no mentions on death certificates of fatal poisonings from toxic industrial salts. But sodium nitrite, or its chemical cousin sodium nitrate, were mentioned in connection with about five deaths in each of 2018 and 2019. Those numbers spiked to about 15 deaths in each of 2020, 2021 and 2022. (Statscan says it rounds its death numbers to the nearest five to better preserve the anonymity of the deceased.)
Each of these estimated 55 deaths was logged as a suicide. Statscan also recorded five accidental deaths caused by the same chemicals.
Spokespeople for the statistical agency said about two-thirds of the deaths related specifically to sodium nitrite, and that Ontario had the most recorded deaths, at roughly 35. The Prairies were next, at about 15. Quebec and the Atlantic regions had about five each.
B.C. deaths are not included in the Statscan database, but BC Coroners Service spokesperson Ryan Panton said in an e-mail that officials there have noted 12 sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate deaths dating back to 2020. Eleven of these deaths are attributable to suicide, he said.
These counts are preliminary, and would not necessarily reflect the full scale of the problem.
Sodium nitrite is covered by federal regulations, which allow it to be used as a preservative in very small amounts in foods where its usage is clearly labelled.
But in 2021, a group of alarmed pathologists from Ontario published a journal article highlighting the fact that the salt had factored in more than 20 deaths in that province: “This is an increasingly employed method of suicide in our region,” it said.
In an interview earlier this year, Tyler Hickey, one of the article’s authors, called for a formal government review of sodium nitrite’s availability to the public.
Officials in Quebec have also raised alarms about the substance: “It is difficult to justify that this dangerous product can be freely accessible and purchased online,” says a 2022 investigative report written by provincial coroner Louis Normandin after he examined a suicide.
His report recommends that provincial and federal governments work together to focus more scrutiny on online sales of sodium nitrite: “It is difficult to imagine what the intentions of an individual who orders this product could be other than to end their life.”
Federal government officials say they are aware of Dr. Normandin’s report and recommendations. But they cannot point to any new policies that would restrict sales of the substance in Canada.
“Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are common substances used in numerous applications, and the Government of Canada has found that they do not pose a risk to human health when used as intended,” Health Canada spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau said.
Last summer in the United States, federal politicians introduced the Youth Poisoning Protection Act, which would ban sales of high-concentration sodium nitrite products to the public. That bill has not yet passed.
But California has similar laws that are set to come into effect this summer. Damon Connolly, a member of the state assembly, introduced one of the bills. He said it was passed after parents of teenagers who had died from ingesting toxic salts gave testimony to the legislature this summer.
“The stories were powerful, and they affected us,” Mr. Connolly said. “We needed to take action. The purpose of legislation is to make a clear policy statement on behalf of the public.”
In the Toronto area, York Regional Police Inspector Simon James, the case manager who is leading the Kenneth Law investigation, told reporters he is unaware of any new government policies being brought to bear on sodium nitrite.
Mr. Law, who is in custody, has denied criminal wrongdoing. He plans to contest the charges in court, according to his lawyer.
Police agencies in Britain say they are investigating 88 deaths that could be tied to shipments sent by Mr. Law. But no British criminal charges have been announced.
David Parfett, a British father who says his son, Tom, died after purchasing sodium nitrite from Mr. Law, warned that more regulation is needed.
“The consequences of selling SN without controls,” he said, using an abbreviation for sodium nitrite, “is that people die.”