A case brought by the families of suicide victims goes before the Washington State Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Judges in Washington State are being asked to determine whether Amazon should be held liable for selling 99 percent pure sodium nitrite, a chemical with no known household uses, that was used in the suicide deaths of at least 28 people ages 15 to 42.
Attorneys in the case first contacted Amazon in 2020 to let them know that the chemical was being used in suicide deaths. At that point, New York-based attorneys Carrie Goldberg and Naomi Leeds represented just one client.
“We expected the case to just be sort of a one and done,” Goldberg told National Review. “We would let them know that they were selling a suicide chemical that was being recommended on a suicide website and we were like, ‘Amazon does not want to be peddling in death.’”
But Amazon did not remove the product from its marketplace. Instead, it maintained it was legal to sell the product, and continued doing so for 22 months.
During those months, an additional 27 people died by suicide by mixing sodium nitrite with water and ingesting it.
While 6 percent sodium nitrite is used to cure meats, attorneys argue the chemical in its 99 percent pure form has no usage outside of a laboratory or hospital setting, and that those environments would not buy their chemical supply from Amazon.
Ten lawsuits representing 28 families argue Amazon sold sodium nitrite directly to vulnerable teenagers and knew suicide was the primary non-laboratory use for the chemical. The suits also allege Amazon removed safety warnings from product listings and bottles and retaliated against consumers who posted one-star reviews to warn others.
The marketplace first began selling the chemical in 2013 and, until 2017, sold about 50 to 100 units per year.
But then a suicide manual that Amazon also sells popularized the use of sodium nitrite as a suicide method. The method was then shared widely on online forums like Reddit, 4chan, and a pro-suicide website.
Suddenly, Amazon began selling 2,000 to 3,000 units of the chemical per year. Troubled teens and adults could have the chemical shipped to their house overnight for anywhere between $20 and $50.
“The only thing that changed was that this industrial chemical was also now known to be a suicide chemical,” Goldberg said, estimating that some 11,000 units were sold by Amazon to buyers who purchased the chemical with the intent to use it as a suicide method — though not all of those individuals may have consumed the sodium nitrite, or died.
The attorneys argue Amazon’s algorithm was well aware that the chemical was being used in suicides. When users would search “sodium nitrite” on Amazon, the search function would autopopulate “sodium nitrite suicide” as a potential search.
And while viewing the page for sodium nitrite, users were told that customers also purchased the popular suicide handbook, Tagamet pills to suppress vomiting, and a kitchen scale — a group of items that amounted to an Amazon-endorsed suicide kit, attorneys say.
After 16-year-old Ayden Wallin died by suicide after ingesting sodium nitrite, his parents found a receipt in a trashcan near his body that revealed he paid just $21.18 for the product from Amazon.
“This child was my life. And to [Amazon] it meant nothing. Like my son’s life meant nothing to them,” Ayden’s mother, Meredith Mitchel, told KING 5.
Mitchel would go on to spend a year warning Amazon that the chemical was being used in suicide deaths. “I honestly thought that maybe they didn’t know,” she said.
Mitchel was far from the only one who warned Amazon about the chemical’s deadly use. At least 18 product reviews on Amazon’s product pages warned of the dangers. Another parent wrote to Amazon five times between 2020 and 2021 to inform the company her son had died by suicide. A representative wrote back informing the mother that her complaint was “being escalated,” and that “At least your son is now on our God’s hand.”
In 2021, the FDA contacted Amazon about labeling issues and about a young man who died by suicide after buying the product in 2020. That same year, at least four letters were sent to Amazon from attorneys representing parents of minors who died by suicide using the chemical.
Amazon, for its part, told National Review it views sodium nitrite as a “widely-available product offered by retailers to preserve foods, such as meats and fish, and for use in laboratories as a reagent.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones personally affected by suicide,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “Customer safety is a top priority at Amazon. We are committed to a safe shopping experience and require our selling partners to follow all applicable laws and regulations when listing items in our store.”
“High concentration sodium nitrite is not intended for direct consumption, and unfortunately, like many products, it can be misused,” the statement added. “To minimize the potential for product misuse, we have limited the sale of high concentration sodium nitrite to business buyers on Amazon Business since October 2022.”
In court filings, Amazon has argued that the lawsuits are without merit and should be dismissed.
Attorneys for the e-commerce giant argue the deaths were caused by “voluntary choices to commit suicide by intentionally ingesting an industrial-grade chemical, not from something wrong with the product.”
“Any emotional harm in this case was a result of the volitional act of creating suicide. And as a matter of law that cannot be emotional damage by Amazon. It’s an intentional infliction by the decedent itself,” said Amazon attorney Greg Miller at a February 2024 hearing, according to KING 5.
Amazon will make that argument during a hearing before the Washington State Supreme Court on Tuesday. Amazon is appealing to the state’s highest court after six trial judges have declined to dismiss the lawsuits against it.
Despite arguments that it should not be held liable for the deaths, Amazon did pull the chemical from its shelves in October 2022 after it began receiving widespread backlash on social media.
At that point, Goldberg’s firm had filed lawsuits on behalf of four families and had sent the company preservation letters for another ten families. The suits were also mentioned in a New York Times article and in February 2022, seven members of Congress sent Amazon a letter asking why the marketplace was still selling the chemical.
“We’re the only law firm that represents people who’ve died from sodium nitrite,” Goldberg said. “Once Amazon stopped selling it, we didn’t get another client. The issue of sodium nitrite suicides almost cured overnight.”
The attorneys argue Amazon should have, and easily could have, removed the product from its shelves much sooner because several of the brands were being sold under Amazon’s first-party vendor system, which meant Amazon warehouses stored the product wholesale and could ship the product via Prime shipping. Under the program, Amazon was responsible for creating product pages and setting prices — they did not have to rely on a third party to remove the listings.
Goldberg also disputed Amazon’s argument that the suicides amounted to a “volitional act of creating suicide.”
“We’re dealing with 15 year olds, 16 year olds,” Goldberg said. “We’re dealing with people who were in extreme emotional states. The question of what is a volitional act, what was intentional, when you’re dealing with people that are not even people with a legal capacity to agree to anything, that is also an issue of fact.”
In response to the lawsuits, Amazon initially argued that the Washington Product Liability Act only covers situations where there is a defect in the product.
But attorneys for the families argue Amazon had “no business selling an industrial-grade chemical to households in the first place” and then had a “duty to stop providing that tool for death to households” as soon as it was made aware it was being used in suicides.
Goldberg also argues the WPLA covers claims for seller negligence. By continuing to sell the chemical after being made aware of its use as a suicide agent, Amazon was “basically enrolling itself as a hit man,” they said.
“It’s exactly why our product liability and negligence laws exist,” Goldberg said. “Once a seller or manufacturer knows that they are distributing a dangerous product into the stream of commerce, if they don’t make any changes or notify the public, then they can be held liable.” She pointed to numerous cases that aim to hold third parties responsible for suicides, including lawsuits against social-media platforms that aim to hold the platforms liable for feeding children content that’s pro-suicide and lawsuits against doctors who failed to prevent suicides through medical negligence.
And in a case outside the U.S., a Canadian man is facing 14 counts of first-degree murder for selling and shipping sodium nitrite to people intending to kill themselves. Kenneth Law was first arrested in May 2023 on two counts of counseling or aiding suicide before he was later charged with murder. Radio Canada International has linked Law to 131 suicides worldwide.
Law has pleaded not guilty, despite admitting to selling the substance, saying he had no control over what his customers used the product for. His case is set to go to trial in January 2026.
“What could be considered a volitional act can also be considered murder,” Leeds said. “And we feel that Amazon is being a corporate homicidal maniac.”