Chemical Catastrophes –
August 6, 2019 – Suicide was previously the leading cause of death for males in this age group for the past three years running. In 2018 there were 1,336 deaths attributed to accidental poisoning in men aged 35 to 49. This accounted for 12.5 per cent of deaths for men in this age group, up from 10.9 per cent in 2017. In contrast, in 2017, 1,163 men aged 35-49 took their own lives, amounting to 11.1 per cent of all deaths for men in this age group. Despite suicide now being the second-biggest killer of middle-aged men, the rate of deaths for this category continue to increase. Last year the figure rose to 1,249 and equated to 11.7 per cent of deaths for all men in this age group.
Meanwhile, the data also showed that accidental poisoning rates were much lower for women in this age group, accounting for just 451 deaths (6.8 per cent) in 2018, up slightly from 408 (6.3 per cent) in 2017. The leading cause of death for middle-aged women in 2018 was breast cancer, causing 839 deaths (12.6 per cent) for women in this age group.
