Thursday, December 5, 2002

Suicide still the top killer

By BRODIE FENLON, TORONTO SUN

Suicide remains the leading cause of death by trauma for Ontario men, ahead of car accidents and falls, a report says.

But the rate of deaths caused by physical trauma has dropped 27% over 10 years in the province, the Canadian Institute for Health Information report says.

MEN TOP LIST

Men account for nearly two-thirds of all such deaths in Ontario, with 29% of those caused by suicide, followed closely by car crashes at 27% and falls at 22%.

For women, the top three causes of injury deaths were falls (48%), car crashes (25%) and suicide (12%).

In 1999-2000, 753 men and 217 women in Ontario took their own lives.

SUICIDE PROBLEM

"People misperceive the significance of suicide as a public health problem," said Dr. Paul Links of the University of Toronto.

"More people die of suicide than from AIDS, and yet AIDS gets a lot more attention."

There were 3,145 injury deaths in Ontario in 1999-2000. The overall decline in injury-related deaths is due to a drop in car accidents and falls, the report said.

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