The Common Food Preservative Linked To Suicide

Firstly, we’ll note: no, this is not a statistical misrepresentation in the manner of “ice cream sales cause shark attacks”; it’s a link with a very clearly identifiable mechanism of action.

If you’re not sure what we mean about ice cream sales and shark attacks (and other such statistical misrepresentations), see: How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)

Now, with that said…

Food additives in general do not have a fabulous reputation for bringing good health. On the contrary, it is a generally held popular belief that “food additives are bad”.

This is not always true:

• Sometimes, food additives are health-neutral, like: Monosodium Glutamate: Sinless Flavor-Enhancer Or Terrible Health Risk?
• Sometimes, food additives are positively healthy, like: The Food Additive You Do Want ← this is about guar gum, a resistant starch that functions much like dietary fiber

…and of course, things being fortified with vitamins and minerals is usually a good thing too.

There are, however, definitely worse options, especially in the category of food preservatives specifically, such as:

• The Preservatives That Increase Diabetes Risk
• The Common Food Preservatives That Are Linked To Cancer

Today we’re going to talk some more about one of the food preservatives that’s common enough to have made it onto both of the above lists!

The sodium nitrite problem

Sodium nitrite (not to be confused with sodium nitrate, nitride, or nitratite, which are all different chemicals* despite having partially or entirely the same “ingredients”) is common food preservative, and you may find it on ingredient labels under its E-number, E250.

^{*We’ll speak on those briefly, though: sodium nitrate and its common mineral form nitratite are also not good to ingest (and also appear on the lists above), but are simply not our main focus here today, although we will touch on sodium nitrate too. As for sodium nitride, that’s also not good to ingest, but you won’t find that one in your food, as it’s very unstable. If you were somehow able to ingest some, then upon contact with the saliva of your mouth, it would already start reacting, to produce sodium hydroxide (bleach) and ammonium gas (also not a good thing to have in your mouth, much less your stomach).}

Back to sodium nitrite…

Researchers (Dr. Amrita Ahluwalia et al.) did an analysis of postmortem cases, and found a substantial (and increasing!) number of suspected suicides involving nitrite poisoning (or sometimes sodium nitrate). Also featured in the report were close chemical cousins potassium nitrite and potassium nitrate.

The age range of those who died this way was 14–82 years. In terms of scale, 201 cases were submitted for laboratory assessment, with coroners permitting researchers to include 164 cases in the final analysis. Nitrite or nitrate poisoning was confirmed in 87% of these cases.

Further, Dr. Ahluwalia and her team note that the true number is probably higher because nitrite/nitrate testing is not routinely performed in every suspected suicide, and also that differences in testing practices between coroners and regions may also affect the apparent geographic distribution.

You may be wondering how much is sufficient to cause death. The lethal dose is 71 mg/kg, which is sufficient to cause fatal methemoglobinemia, characterized by systemic hypoxia (shortage of oxygen), metabolic acidosis (makes your blood acidic), and cyanosis (turning purple).

Paradoxically, that’s part of why it’s used as a preservative “fresh” meats, to preserve to red color, due to how a short series of chemical reactions result in a final reaction with myoglobin in the blood. The difference is that unlike you, already-dead meat is not using oxygen as it goes. Hence, with a sufficient dose of sodium nitrite, it stays red and you turn purple.

You can read the paper and see the graphics of its rise in use, here: Retrospective cohort analysis of nitrite and nitrate levels in postmortem biological samples after suspected suicide

Want to read more?

Suicide isn’t a cheerful topic, but it is an important one, and we’ve written about it here:

How To Stay Alive (When You Really Don’t Want To) <- this article actually covers not only managing suicidality in oneself, but also in others around us

Take care!