Key points
- Families link sodium nitrite to suicides
- Justices cite duty of reasonable care
- Twenty-eight families seek damages
ISLAMABAD: The Washington Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that Amazon can be sued by families whose relatives died by suicide after purchasing sodium nitrite from third-party sellers on the company’s platform.
According to Reuters, the nine-member court overturned an earlier appellate ruling that had shielded Amazon from negligence claims on the grounds that suicide constituted a superseding cause of death.
Justice G. Helen Whitener wrote that Amazon owed its customers a duty of reasonable care and must avoid exposing them to “harm from the foreseeable conduct of a third party.” She added that it should be up to a jury to determine whether suicide was a foreseeable consequence of the company’s alleged failure to meet that duty.
A total of 28 families have filed lawsuits claiming Amazon had long been aware of the connection between sodium nitrite and suicide but continued to permit unrestricted sales of the substance, often alongside other items they describe collectively as “suicide kits.” The families are seeking unspecified damages under Washington state product liability law.
Food preservative
Thursday’s decision addressed appeals from four families who said relatives aged between 17 and 27 died in 2020 and 2021 after ingesting sodium nitrite with purity levels of 98% or 99.6%.
Amazon said it disagreed with the ruling but reaffirmed its commitment to customer safety and offered condolences to those affected.
“Amazon is one of the world’s biggest companies, and shouldn’t be profiting from products they know people use to harm themselves,” Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer for the families, said in an interview.
Sodium nitrite is legally used as a food preservative and in medical and laboratory settings. In a statement, Amazon said highly concentrated sodium nitrite “is not intended for direct consumption, and unfortunately, like many products, it can be misused.” The company added that it now bans sales of sodium nitrite with purity above 10%.
