Cases of hydrogen sulfide gas suicide in which entire apartment buildings and houses have to be evacuated are highlighting the physical harm such a suicide method can do to one’s family and neighbors. However, three reports of gas suicides over the holiday weekend show that the suicidal are trying to limit the danger to those around them.

Case 1: A suicide in Nagano

An unemployed man has gassed himself to death by producing deadly hydrogen sulfide in a car parked here, but not before leaving a sign to warn passersby of the poisonous gas inside the vehicle, police said Tuesday.

Case 2: A couple in Fukui

A piece of paper reading, “Caution! Toxic Gas,” had been posted on a window of the car, and detergent containers were found in the vehicle, leading investigators to suspect that the two had made a pact to kill themselves by producing deadly hydrogen sulfide gas inside the car.

Case 3: A schoolboy in Osaka

A 17-year-old schoolboy fatally gassed himself here Tuesday by sticking his head in a plastic bag filled with lethal hydrogen sulfide, police said.

The cases still involved precautionary evacuations, but as those who had died had probably planned, none of their family members or neighbors were physically hurt by the gas used in the suicides.