Supermarkets continue to stack shelves with charcoal despite evidence that keeping it out of sight can help reduce the suicide rate.
The University of Hong Kong's Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention is publishing a collection of studies on suicide prevention in the latest edition of The Lancet in the hope of bolstering efforts to get stores to restrict sales of the cooking fuel.
The studies, which include research in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Sri Lanka, suggest that making it harder to obtain charcoal, guns, pesticides and certain over-the-counter drugs can deter would-be suicide victims.
'The common perception is that suicidal people will turn to whatever means necessary, but that's not quite true,' centre director Dr Paul Yip Siu-fai said.
'The most effective way to reduce suicide rates is to restrict access to the most lethal ways. We have evidence to show they will not be replaced by another method.'
The centre hopes the data will put pressure on supermarkets to require customers to have to ask for charcoal, even after they took part in a year-long study that found such a policy may have helped cut the suicide rate in one area by more than half.