Recipient

Metalchem Limited

First report 20 Nov 2020•Latest report 20 Nov 2020

Recipient record

Reports, concerns and published responses

Private and voluntary organisations · Private limited company. This page brings together reports naming this recipient and response statements clearly connected to concerns raised in those reports.

Reports: 1
Published responses: 100%
Concerns addressed: 2
Stated actions: 5

Reports over time

Reports naming this recipient by issue year.

Evidence profile

Report topics

Share of this recipient’s reports compared with all other recipients.

100%published responses found

5stated actions described

Topic comparisons are not available in the current evidence snapshot.

Concerns and recipient responses

Statements from Metalchem Limited linked to the concerns in each report. Select any concern, action or position to view the source wording.

20 Nov2020
County Durham and Darlington
Concerns raised2
1. Unrestricted availability of a lethal substance as a meat preservative
2. Active promotion of a particular method of death by suicide
Responses linked to these concerns
Each statement is shown once, even when linked to more than one concern.
Actions described in response 4
1. Action
  Report the remaining Sodium Nitrite listing shipping to the United Kingdom for removal or restriction.
  Stated planned
2. Action
  Contact other online sellers to request removal of Sodium Nitrite listings where the purchase purpose cannot reasonably be ascertained.
  Stated completed
3. Action
  Coordinate removal of persistent Sodium Nitrite sellers’ listings on eBay and Etsy.
  Stated completed
1. Action
  Withdraw Sodium Nitrite listings from Metalchem’s eBay sales.
  Stated completed
AI-generated summary

Jason THOMPSON · Prevention of Future Deaths report

This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

Report summary

Jason THOMPSON, a 49-year-old man, collapsed at home after taking a quantity of a substance and died shortly afterwards in Darlington Memorial Hospital on 8 February 2020. The concerns included the ready availability of a lethal substance, including through a popular online platform, and material allegedly describing its use to commit suicide and potentially promoting that method.

Read the report on judiciary.uk
Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Metalchem Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation
Unrestricted availability of a lethal substance as a meat preservative
Wider context from the report
“‘████████ is used to preserve and cure meat, to which it imparts a pink-red colour. The minimum lethal dose is ████████. ████████ can be readily bought via the ████████. For example, it is possibly to buy up to ████████ for a few pounds on ████████, without restriction. A chapter from Salts’, available ████████, describes the use of ████████ to commit suicide and compares it with ████████ and ████████.” (1) ████████ may be actively promoting a particular method of death by suicide and hence breaking the criminal law by assisting suicide. (2) That such a lethal substance ████████ should be so freely available on a popular ████████ ████████, sold by a company (████████) under the guise of being a meat preservative. ”
Open source report
Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Metalchem Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation
Active promotion of a particular method of death by suicide
Wider context from the report
“‘████████ is used to preserve and cure meat, to which it imparts a pink-red colour. The minimum lethal dose is ████████. ████████ can be readily bought via the ████████. For example, it is possibly to buy up to ████████ for a few pounds on ████████, without restriction. A chapter from Salts’, available ████████, describes the use of ████████ to commit suicide and compares it with ████████ and ████████.” (1) ████████ may be actively promoting a particular method of death by suicide and hence breaking the criminal law by assisting suicide. (2) That such a lethal substance ████████ should be so freely available on a popular ████████ ████████, sold by a company (████████) under the guise of being a meat preservative. ”
Open source report
Source evidence

How this respondent action was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

PFD Monitor interpretation
Report the remaining Sodium Nitrite listing shipping to the United Kingdom for removal or restriction.

Verbatim wording from the response
“As of today (when I have just checked) I am pleased to say that there are no listings for Sodium Nitrite on either eBay or Etsy . It is however still available on ████████ with shipping to United Kingdom.”

Source location
2020-0246-Response-from-Metalchem-Ltd-Redacted.pdf
Page 2 · response
Published 24 December 2020
Open published response
Source evidence

How this respondent action was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

PFD Monitor interpretation
Contact other online sellers to request removal of Sodium Nitrite listings where the purchase purpose cannot reasonably be ascertained.

Verbatim wording from the response
“I have since April proactively contacted a number of other sellers to request that they stop selling Sodium Nitrite NaNO2 (SN) online when clearly the reason for purchase cannot be reasonably ascertained. I have also enlisted the help of ████████ in removing a number of persistent sellers both on Ebay and then more recently this month on Etsy - and I regularly check these sites”

Source location
2020-0246-Response-from-Metalchem-Ltd-Redacted.pdf
Page 1 · response
Published 24 December 2020
Open published response
Source evidence

How this respondent action was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

PFD Monitor interpretation
Coordinate removal of persistent Sodium Nitrite sellers’ listings on eBay and Etsy.

Verbatim wording from the response
“I have since April proactively contacted a number of other sellers to request that they stop selling Sodium Nitrite NaNO2 (SN) online when clearly the reason for purchase cannot be reasonably ascertained. I have also enlisted the help of ████████ in removing a number of persistent sellers both on Ebay and then more recently this month on Etsy - and I regularly check these sites”

Source location
2020-0246-Response-from-Metalchem-Ltd-Redacted.pdf
Page 1 · response
Published 24 December 2020
Open published response
Source evidence

How this respondent action was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

PFD Monitor interpretation
Withdraw Sodium Nitrite listings from Metalchem’s eBay sales.

Verbatim wording from the response
“I can confirm that Sodium Nitrite (which is used extensively in meat curing, preservation and in numerous chemical processes) is no longer sold by Metalchem on eBay. We withdrew the listing immediately back in April 2020 when we became aware that it was being recommended on these dreadful suicide forums for young people – notably ████████ – both of which are still sadly still active.”

Source location
2020-0246-Response-from-Metalchem-Ltd-Redacted.pdf
Page 1 · response
Published 24 December 2020
Open published response

Information checked against published PFD reports and official responses · Data reviewed 7 Sep 2026 · About data quality and limitations

Data last updated 7 September 2026

Reports, concerns and published responses

Reports over time

Concerns raised2

Unrestricted availability of a lethal substance as a meat preservative

Active promotion of a particular method of death by suicide

Actions described in response An action is something this recipient says it has done, is doing, or plans to do in response to the concern raised.4

Actions described in response 4