Deliberate self-poisoning with pesticides is the commonest method of fatal self-harm in this region.(7-9) + Sri Lankan studies (see added refs)). A recent Chinese study suggested that 175,000 deaths from pesticide self-poisoning occur annually in that country alone.(10) Assuming this data to be representative of the whole region, around 300,000 deaths from self-poisoning with pesticides are occurring each year in SE Asia and the Western Pacific. In addition, a further 160,000 people are dying from unintentional poisoning.(6) A comparison of two WHO estimates suggests that the problem has nearly doubled in size over the last decade,(6;11) a conclusion supported by similar or larger trends in data from individual districts