SEATTLE — The retail giant Amazon missed years-long opportunities to pull a chemical with a documented history of being used by young people to end their lives, the KING 5 Investigators found.
Amazon sold 99% strength sodium nitrite, a common meat preservative, for years after red flags came into the company about the misuse of the product as a suicide agent, according to legal documents. Amazon pulled the product from its site in October 2022 – six years after the first recorded online complaint from a grieving parent.
Sodium nitrite is used as a meat preservative for products such as beef jerky at a concentration of 6%. But Amazon sold the product at 99% purity to the public, even though at that strength there is no known household use. Only hospitals and laboratories would have a reason to purchase sodium nitrite at 99% strength.
A total of 24 families are currently suing Amazon after their children secretly bought 99% sodium nitrite on the website, had it delivered to their homes, mixed it with water, and drank it to end their lives.
Amazon did not respond to KING 5’s inquiries for this story, but in court hearings and legal papers Amazon is aggressively defending itself, saying the lawsuits are without merit and should be thrown out.
“Here, the decedents’ death were … caused by their voluntary choices to commit suicide by intentionally ingesting an industrial-grade chemical, not from something wrong with the product,” wrote an Amazon attorney.
“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 in Kent.
A grieving mother’s push to get Amazon to take action
Ayden Wallin, 16, of San Bernardino, Calif., is one of the young people who died by suicide after ingesting sodium nitrite purchased on Amazon. The receipt his parents found in his trashcan by his body showed he paid $21.18 for the product.
“This child was my life. And to [Amazon] it meant nothing. Like my son’s life meant nothing to them,” said Ayden’s mother, Meredith Mitchel.
Mitchel issued more warnings to Amazon than any parent in an effort to pressure the company to remove the product. After her son died in August 2020, Mitchel spent over a year trying to get company representatives to take action.
“I honestly thought that maybe they didn’t know [the product was being used in suicides]” Mitchel said.
Her efforts included spending two hours on a live chat with an Amazon customer service representative in September 2020, according to screen shots of the exchange in court documents.
“My son used it to end his life,” Mitchel wrote. “The longer this remains available…the higher chance there is of other kids purchasing this.” The mother repeatedly asked, unsuccessfully, if she could speak with a manager. The customer service agent said they were not allowed to pass out direct contact information but assured her, “Please don’t worry … The product will be either removed or not available after the team has taken actions.”
“’I just told you I lost my son, I lost my boy,’” Mitchel said about the interaction. “’And you won’t even give me a phone number to call. Give me a person, instead of letting me talk about my dead son over chat.’”
The product remained on the site. Mitchel then wrote nine emails to Amazon executives.
“It’s been a few weeks (and the product is still for sale)” she wrote. “Every day this remains unregulated, a minor could use it to end their lives.”
On Oct. 14, 2020, an Amazon representative answered with: “We do appreciate your feedback and have forwarded it to the correct department internally.”
Sodium nitrite remained on the site. Mitchel reached out again a year later, on Oct. 14, 2021, with another email urging Amazon to take action.
“I know you hope parents like myself just go away, but unless my son is coming back, I will not go away until you remove these products from your website and take some responsibility for the products you sell and deliver," she said in the email.
The next month, on Nov. 3, 2021, an executive customer relations specialist wrote one more email to Mitchel, saying she was most likely done communicating with her.
“I regret we’ve been unable to address your concerns to your satisfaction. However, we’ll not be able to offer any additional insight or action on these matters, and any further inquiries on this matter may not receive a response. We appreciate your understanding," the executive's email said.
That email arrived on what would have been Ayden’s 18th birthday.
“And that was the last I heard from them,” Mitchel said.
After Ayden’s death, and Mitchel’s first attempt to get Amazon’s attention, the product remained on the site for two more years. During that time at least, 23 other young people died by suicide by ingesting sodium nitrite purchased on the site.
“Absolutely there was a constellation of warnings,” said New York-based attorney Carrie Goldberg. “If they had listened to Meredith and stopped selling it, I believe those 23 other people would still be alive and I know that the 24 people that my firm is representing is just a small tip of the iceberg.”
Deadly deliveries: Teens, young adults die by suicide using products sold on Amazon
Timeline of some of the warnings to Amazon
Amazon received other online comments, emails and letters of concern about sodium nitrite from parents and other stakeholders, according to court documents. Those include the following:
- 2016 – Consumers posted on a sodium nitrite vendor’s website that the product was lethal. “[This] stuff will kill you. Amazon needs to get this off this search NOW!” wrote the one consumer.
- 2020 – 2021 – Meredith Mitchel’s communications
- 2018 – 2021 - At least 18 product reviews were posted on Amazon’s sodium nitrite product pages.
- “You killed my son. Take it off the market,” wrote one parent.
- “Dangerous product if not used for what it is intended for. I have contacted customer service many times,” wrote a consumer.
- 2020-2021 – A grieving mother of a young adult wrote Amazon five times to inform them her son had died by suicide.
- A representative wrote back saying the complaint was “being escalated,” and that “At least your son is now on our God’s hand.”
- 2021 – A toxicologist from Kansas Poison Control writes an Amazon review.
- “If cyanide isn’t allowed on Amazon, then this should not be either,” wrote Conner Bowman.
- 2021 – The FDA contacted Amazon about labeling issues and about a young man who died by suicide after buying the product in 2020.
- 2021 – At least four letters were sent to Amazon from attorneys representing parents.
- “Amazon has been repeatedly informed that sodium nitrite purchased on its website has been used for suicide,” wrote one attorney. “We implore Amazon.com to immediately remove sodium nitrite from Amazon.com. This product should only be available to verifiable businesses who use it as intended.”
- 2021 – Five parents sue Amazon, accusing the company of knowingly selling a product used for suicide, making it easy and convenient for their vulnerable children to take their lives.
- 2022 – Seven members of the US Congress send a letter to Amazon’s president and CEO.
- “It has come to our attention…that Amazon is providing minors and adults with easy access to sodium nitrite, a deadly chemical popularized on (pro-suicide websites),” wrote the members of Congress. “When a person is having suicidal thoughts, limiting fast access to methods by which to die can make the difference between life and death, making the fact that sodium nitrite can be sold and delivered overnight with Amazon Prime, a grave concern.”
- 2022 – Two more families sue Amazon for selling the product to their children who used it to kill themselves.
- 2022 – One month after the lawsuit was filed, Amazon removed sodium nitrite from its website.
“It pisses me off. They knew. They took our child’s life, because they knew,” said Ayden Wallin’s stepdad Gustavo Mitchel. “They failed. They failed the families. They didn’t have the heart to do the right thing.”
None of the lawsuits against Amazon has been settled or been tried in a court of law. Amazon has filed motions to dismiss each case.