25 Pudukai suicide victims used rat poison

“Since this paste is widely available, whoever is impacted psychologically due to personal problems take the extreme step [of suicide] by opting to consume the [rat poison] paste which is more dangerous than any other poison,” says Meekashi Sundaram, a social activist from Pudukkottai. While the poisonous paste is mainly used in agricultural fields to target rodents by applying the paste on bread pieces to attract the pests and facilitate the poison’s ingestion, its availability at cheap rates make frustrated people in rural parts of the State to prefer the product to end their lives, Meekashi said. “Once the paste is consumed, the person would develop only nausea and would appear normal for at least three days. The person subsequently dies before ascertaining the amount of poison he has consumed,” he added.

According to Dr Sivakumar in Pudukkottai, the victims who consume the rat poison are usually asymptomatic in the first 72 hours after ingestion, or may have gastrointestinal irritation. After 72 hours, they develop deranged liver function and coagulopathy. Central nervous system effects include change in mental status like confusion, psychosis, hallucinations, and coma.

Learning of the report and the high risk the rat paste poses, traders in Mazhaiyur in Pudukkottai after organising a meeting recently, have passed a resolution to stop selling the product in the entire locality.

Meanwhile, the social activists demanded the district administration to monitor the sales of such poison and also approached the State Health minister to implement a ban on the sale of rat paste.