Michael Eddleston

Michael has been pivotal in tackling the global health crisis of pesticide-induced suicides for over three decades. Stemming from personal observations during his medical training in Sri Lanka in 1995, Michael observed a high number of pesticide poisonings, especially among the youth, often not intended to be fatal but driven by acute distress and a lack of safer alternatives. Motivated to curb these preventable deaths, he initially improved clinical care but soon shifted to prevention, influencing regulatory policies that led to a 70% reduction in Sri Lanka’s suicide rates, saving approximately 93,000 lives from 1995 to 2015.

 

In 2017, he founded the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention at Edinburgh to promote similar bans globally. This initiative now operates in over 20 countries and is backed by significant funding from Open Philanthropy. His work with global organisations and governments has led to bans on lethal pesticides in multiple nations, saving an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 lives in recent years.

 

Besides pesticides, he also leads significant research in poisoning treatments and supports national poison control efforts, blending evidence-based approaches with profound compassion and community collaboration, making substantive contributions to global public health.