Female suicides in major Texas cities, 1994 through 1998.

From 1976 to 1985, Texas ranked first among states in the proportion of injury deaths caused by firearms, with an annual rate of 21.2 per 100,000. From 1995 to 1997, suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in Texas, claiming 2137 lives and accounting for 20% of all injury deaths in Texas. Firearm injuries significantly affect mortality rates in many states. The rates of suicide have continued to rise, particularly in young adults, and the rate of suicide by firearms has also increased significantly throughout the United States. We have focused on the most common method of suicide by age and race among women in Texas from 1994 through 1998. This work extended that of Li et al on suicide in Austin, Travis County, Texas, from 1994 through 1998. Those investigators found that the most common method of suicide in females was by firearms. In this current study, we asked whether the Austin data for females were unique or were representative of other major cities in Texas, including Dallas, El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio. Our major finding was that the use of firearms was the most common method of suicide among women in all of these cities. Women aged from 35 to 44 years had the highest incidence of deaths, followed by those aged from 45 to 54 years. Hispanic women had the lowest rate of suicide compared with African American and white women. Overall, rates of suicide among white males and females are at or higher than the US average in all Texas cities examined, except Dallas. Suicide rates among African-American males are at or below the US average, whereas the suicide rate for African-American females exceeds the national average. Nationwide rates for Hispanics were not available.

Suicide in Travis County, Texas, from 1994 through 1998.

Suicide, the ninth leading cause of death in the United States, has not been adequately studied in Travis County, Texas. To describe the occurrence of completed suicide in Travis County, 426 cases of completed suicide from 1994 through 1998 were collected and the data were analyzed with the chi 2 test and the t test. The annual suicide rate in Travis County is 13.0 per 100,000. Caucasian males have the highest annual suicide rate among all races, followed by Hispanics and, then, blacks. The highest suicide rate was seen in persons aged 75 years and older. The second most frequent rate was for those aged 45 through 54 years. Guns are the most common means of suicide in both males and females (60.8% and 37.3%, respectively). A person who is Caucasian, male, and aged 75 years and older is at the highest risk. Reducing the availability of firearms may have a significant impact on the suicide rates in Travis County.

Benzo[a]pyrene metabolism and macromolecular binding in strains of Ah responsive and Ah non-response mice.

Using liver microsomes as the enzyme source in in vitro assays, benzo[a]pyrene (BP) metabolism was studied in eight inbred strains of mice (C57BL/6J, DBA/2HaD, BALB/cCR, AKR/Sn, RF/J, CBA/J, C57L/J and 129/J). BP metabolite formation was monitored by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and by following aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity. Other parameters measured in cluded the formation of alkali-extractable radioactivity due to [3H] BP metabolites, microsomal protein binding, DNA binding and epoxide hydrase activity. The induction of BP metabolism and binding to macromolecules was studied after treatment of animals with phenobarbital (PB) or 3-methylcholanthrene (MC). Four of the mouse strains (C57BL/6J, BALB/cCr, CBA/J and C57L/J) were highly inducible with respect to liver AHH when pretreated with MC. The induction of AHH by MC in these strains correlated well with the radioactive metabolites of [3H] BP remaining in the alkali extract derived from the AHH assay mixture and with the increased binding of [3H] BP to microsomal protein and DNA. In addition to the eight strains listed above, eight recombinant inbred lines showed a positive correlation between AHH induction and induction of DNA-binding metabolites. PB pretreatment resulted in less than two-fold induction of AHH and alkali-extractable radioactivity. However, DNA and microsomal protein binding were induced by PB pretreatment more than AHH. Ratios of MC-induced/basal activity for BP-phenols were very similar to induction ratios of AHH activity determined by the fluorometric method. BP-quinone formation was induced to the same extent as phenols. This relationship did not hold for dihydrodiol formation; dihydrodiol induction was often higher than AHH or phenol induction. For MC-pretreated mice, dihydrodiol induction, as determined by HPLC, did not parallel macromolecular binding induction as closely as did AHH. For PB-pretreated mice, dihydrodiol induction was as poor as indicator of binding induction as AHH. Epoxide hydrase activity, using styrene oxide as substrate, was induced markedly by PB-pretreatment, but very little by MC-pretreatment. Epoxide hydrase induction did not parallel BP-dihydrodiol induction when microsome preparations from MC- or PB-treated mice were used. These data suggest this enzyme is not rate limiting in this system.