relationship between vehicle emissions laws and incidence of suicide by motor vehicle exhaust gas in australia, 2001–06 an ecological analysis汽车尾气排放法规和自杀发生率之间的关系由机动车废气在澳大利亚,2001 - 06年生态分析.pdfVIP

Relationship between Vehicle Emissions Laws and Incidence of Suicide by Motor Vehicle Exhaust Gas in Australia, 2001–06: An Ecological Analysis 1,2 1 1 1 David M. Studdert *, Lyle C. Gurrin , Uma Jatkar , Jane Pirkis 1 Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2 Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Abstract Background: Globally, suicide accounts for 5.2% of deaths among persons aged 15 to 44 years and its incidence is rising. In Australia, suicide rates peaked in 1997 and have been declining since. A substantial part of that decline stems from a plunge in suicides by one particular method: asphyxiation by motor vehicle exhaust gas (MVEG). Although MVEG remains the second most common method of suicide in Australia, its incidence decreased by nearly 70% in the decade to 2006. The extent to which this phenomenon has been driven by national laws in 1986 and 1999 that lowered permissible levels of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions is unknown. The objective of this ecological study was to test the relationship by investigating whether areas of Australia with fewer noxious vehicles per capita experienced lower rates of MVEG suicide. Methods and Findings: We merged data on MVEG suicides in Australia (2001–06) with data on the number and age of vehicles in the national fleet, as well as socio-demographic data from the national census. Poisson regression was used to analyse the relationship between the incidence of suicide within two levels of geographical area—postcodes and statistical subdivisions (SSDs)—and the population density of pre-1986 and pre-1999 passenger vehicles in those areas. (There was a mean population of 8,302 persons per postcode in the study dataset and 87,413 pers