An increase in the number of suicides in South Korea, has led policeman Yoo Byoung-jong to a new job. He patrols(巡逻) Seoul's bridges to stop desperate people from throwing themselves into the river.
According to South Korea's health ministry, suicide rates have doubled in a decade and are now the leading cause of death for people in their 20s and 30s.
The country has the fourth -- highest suicide rate among the 30 industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It recorded 22.8 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people in 2003. That’s lower than Hungary, Finland and close neighbor Japan. But the number is growing by about 1 per cent each year, faster than for all other OECD nations.
In a move to cut suicides by a fifth by 2010, the health ministry is running a television ad campaign. It opens with a lonely man walking on a bridge. A voiceover says: "Think five minutes more before you give it all away...Don’t forget you have a loving family."
Other ministry plans include setting up more hotlines and training more suicide counselors. Authorities are also limiting websites that provide suicide methods and sometimes even sell toxic (有毒的) chemicals.
Distressed individuals range from students worried about poor grades to people in debt as well as disgraced politicians.
Exports say the rising toll (死亡人数) in some way can be blamed on media coverage of recent high--profile suicides. These include top business leaders and celebrities (名人) who apparently lead a number of people to copy their actions.
"We saved 50 lives this year when people turned to bridges as a place to die after news reports of such deaths by “big shots" said the 38?- year- old Yoo, in December.
Last July, the government and civil associations urged media to avoid reporting specific methods and locations of suicides. But it is difficult to clearly give reasons for the suicide increase.
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