A medical examiner report revealed this week that Empire actress Lindsey Pearlman died by suicide in February from sodium nitrite poisoning—and she’s not alone. Her death is part of an alarming trend that’s left officials scrambling and family members of victims suing Amazon for selling the substance, a common food preservative that can have fatal consequences when ingested in large amounts. Pearlman was found dead in her car on Feb. 13, authorities said, after a five-day search for the actress, who appeared on TV shows like Chicago Justice and General Hospital. While family member’s alluded to her death as a suicide at the time, a medical examiner report obtained by People magazine this week specified that Pearlman died from sodium nitrite poisoning. She was just 43. Pearlman’s death comes as authorities in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom struggle to keep sodium nitrite out of the hands of vulnerable people. Poison centers across the U. S. have received a frightening number of reports of people poisoning themselves by consuming nitrites and nitrates. In 2021, centers saw a 166 percent increase in fatalities compared to 2018 as sodium nitrate became increasingly accessible online. Some websites have even discussed how the compound can be used as a suicide method—outraging victims’ families. If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741Stateside, seven members of Congress wrote an open letter to Amazon the same month as Pearlman’s death, pleading with the company to restrict the sale of sodium nitrite to individuals. The letter referenced the “ease and swiftness” with which vulnerable people can buy the compound as a “grave concern,” The New York Times reported. Sodium nitrite was available on Amazon’s website Tuesday and could be delivered in as little as three days. It’s this ease of access that has doctors and authorities worried. Lindsey Pearlman, 43, died in February from sodium nitrite poisoning. Los Angeles Police DepartmentManufactured to be a synthetic curing salt that preserves meat, sodium nitrite has a practical use—just not one for most individuals, Dr. Kyle Pires, a resident emergency room physician at Yale University Hospital, wrote in the journal Clinical Toxicology last year. Pires wrote that he treated a 28-year-old woman who died from sodium nitrite poisoning just days after she purchased it on Amazon. Pires suggested all hospitals carry doses of an antidote, methylene blue, that can prevent death if administered early.“There’s an argument that it’s a slippery slope to restrict sales of something that is legal just because some people are using it to kill themselves,” Dr. Pires told The New York Times in February.