How does one death get recorded as 5 separate deaths?

[chem1st]

Q. How does one death get recorded as 5 separate deaths?

 

A. When the government records one death as 5!

 

 

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_276681.pdf

 

Drug-related deaths involving specific substances

Figures 4 and 5 give the age-standardised mortality rates where selected substances were

mentioned on the death certificate for 2007 to 2011 and Table 3 gives the number of deaths from

a wide range of substances. These figures need to be interpreted with caution for the following

reasons:

• These figures are based only on information reported on the coroner’s death certificate, and may

not include every substance involved in the death

• In around 11 per cent of drug poisoning deaths only a general description is recorded on the

coroner’s death certificate (such as drug overdose or multiple drug toxicity). Deaths where

the certificate contains only non-specific information cannot contribute to the counts of deaths

involving specific substances

• In an additional 34 per cent of all drug poisoning deaths, the death certificate mentions more

than one specific drug. Where more than one drug is mentioned, it is not possible to tell which

was primarily responsible for the death

• Where more than one drug is mentioned on a death certificate the death will be counted in more

than one category in Table 3. For example, if both heroin and cannabis are mentioned, the death

will be recorded once under heroin and once under cannabis. Therefore the numbers for different

substances cannot be added together to give a total number of deaths

• Approximately 30 per cent of all drug-related poisoning deaths also contain a mention of alcohol

or long-term alcohol abuse (for example, cirrhosis) in addition to a drug