Production of Rat Poison Halted d-CON… Will Cease Production in July

 

Kian Schulman, an advocate against using anticoagulant rodenticides (rat poisons), checks the label on a rat trap by a business in Malibu. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

• Maker agrees to stop producing harmful rat poison for consumer market
• Powerful rat poison to be replaced has accidentally harmed children and animals
• 'This is a significant victory for environmental protection,' attorney says of rat poison halt

LA Times  -  Cross Posted at JOMP: After years of battling federal environmental officials, the maker of d-CON has agreed to stop producing for the consumer market certain rat poisons that have accidentally harmed children, wildlife and pets.

The company's rodent-control products will be replaced next year with a new line of baits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved for use in every state.

Environmental activists hailed the agreement announced Friday.

"This is a significant victory for environmental protection and corporate responsibility," said Jonathan Evans of the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. "While the fight isn't over until all of these hazardous products are off the market, this decision keeps the worst of the worst products from residential consumers."

The poisons will still be available for use in agriculture and by licensed pest-control operators.

The rat poisons that Reckitt Benckiser Group has agreed to discontinue contain "second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides." These are more toxic and persistent than the previous generation of products. The poisons are designed to kill rodents by thinning the blood and preventing clotting.

Scientists say the products have for years wreaked havoc by working their way up the food chain.

The state of California took sweeping action in March, when the Department of Pesticide Regulation signaled plans to halt retail sales of second-generation rat poisons to consumers after July 1. Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of d-CON, lost its bid to stop the ban.

Kian Schulman, secretary of the Malibu Agricultural Society, points out that dumpsters where the lid is not closed attracts rodents. The maker of a powerful, and harmful, rodent pesticide has agreed to stop consumer production. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

The department said the national agreement would not affect the state's action, and it urged stores to continue the process of removing the products from shelves.

Some activists credited California's action with inducing the company to give in.

"California is a huge market," said Greg Loarie, an attorney with Earthjustice, a public interest environmental law firm in San Francisco. With the July 1 deadline looming, he added, "I suspect [Reckitt Benckiser] took a look around and saw the writing on the wall."

Reckitt Benckiser is one of 17 manufacturers of rodent poisons, but it is the only one that had not altered its packaging and ingredients to comply with federal safety standards.

During nearly two decades of research in and around the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service scientists have documented widespread exposure in carnivores to common household poisons. Of 140 bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions evaluated, 88% tested positive for one or more anticoagulant compounds. Scores of animals are known to have died from internal bleeding, researchers said.

The poisons also affect protected or endangered species, including golden eagles, northern spotted owls and San Joaquin kit foxes.

Among heavy users of the poisons are growers of illegal marijuana throughout California. Scientists have linked rat poisons to the deaths of Pacific fishers, which are small carnivores, that had eaten rodents poisoned by illegal pot growers.

Under the agreement, Reckitt Benckiser will begin to phase out production of 12 d-CON rat and mouse poison products next month and will stop production by year-end. The company will cease distribution of existing stocks by March 31, 2015. Retailers will be allowed to keep the products on shelves until stocks are depleted.

*These types of poisons have also harmed and killed family pets and children.

Related:

Household rat poison linked to death and disease in wildlife

Was poisoning of scientist's dog a warning from Humboldt pot growers?

Technorati Tags: Rats,Rat Poison,Toxins,Wildlife,Chemicals,Food Chain,California,d-CON,Poisons,Pets,Endangered Species,Rodenticides

Rats Add Health Concerns to List of New York’s Disaster Problems

A rat peeks out of a hole at a Brooklyn subway stop in 2005. (Photo: AP/Julie Jacobson)

(The Blaze) With more than half a dozen of New York City’s subway tunnels flooded from Hurricane Sandy, subterranean residents usually seen scurrying from one hiding place to another might have an extended stay on the surface, which has some concerned about the health implications.

National Geographic reported exterminator Benett Pearlman of New York-based Positive Pest Management Corp saying that although some rats may have died underground, it’s probable that many escaped a watery grave. Things on the surface are probably looking pretty good to them too:

Sandy has brought a feast to their feet. New sources of food are washing out of the waterways and along flooded streets, including loads of rotting trash, other rats, pigeons, and fish. The well-fed rats will burrow beneath buildings under cover of night to establish new homes, sliding into holes as small as a half inch (1.3 centimeters)—the width of their skulls—even though their bodies can measure up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) long.

Bora Zivkovic has a very detailed blog post for Scientific American with various scenarios for how the rats would have died or survived. He also points out that some rats didn’t even have to deal with the flooding because they were not in an area that went under.

“[..] my guess is that most of the rats survived,”Zivkovic wrote. ”But quite a large number of rats drowned – depending on exact location, depth, how much they know how to get to the surface at all, their exact route to the surface, and their status in the social hierarchy.”

With that, diseases and other health concerns associated with rats come into play. The Huffington Post reported Rick Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies saying that rats are known to “exacerbate disease” if the population is high. Diseases spread through rat bites, feces or urine include hantavirus — seen earlier this year in Yosemite National Park — salmonella and the bubonic plague.

“A rat distrubance is something we should be concerned about,” Ostfeld said, according to the Huffington Post.

HuffPost reported Ostfelt noting that high flood waters could also serve to dilute the disease pathogens associated with the creatures though and lead to less of a risk of contraction.

But these flood waters, National Geographic reported in a separate article, could contribute to illness themselves. Beyond driving out the rats — those who made it — there are several risk factors associated with the water. These include hiding dangerous objects — like glass you could step on — or being electrified from a downed power line.

Sewage brought up from the flood waters could pose an issue as well:

The most concerning urban bacteria is Escherichia coli—also known as E. coli—the organism that most mammals use for digestion. Found in the lower intestine, it can be toxic if ingested into the stomach. Floods that carry raw sewage into high density areas can spread the bacteria.

National Geographic reported University of Michigan Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research Joan Rose saying there is almost always an uptick in illness after an extreme flooding situation.

Suggestions to prevent illness in this situation are to adhere to any boil water advisories, avoid walking in flood water and don’t eat anything coming in contact with the water without properly cleaning it.

Technorati Tags: NYC,New York,disease,natural disasters,rats,pests,Hurricane Sandy,rodents,sewage

The Blue Dye in M&Ms Cures Spinal Injuries

I will choose to believe that they are working with mice who already are injured?!?  And let us hope that pet stores realize that cats and rats are not stuffed animals or toys!

Thanks to miracle compound BBG, mice turn blue, regain ability to walk

Awwwww:  University of Rochester

The next time someone tries to argue that all M&Ms are the same, no matter the color, you can tell them about the blue M&M. The candy (like Gatorade and other products) gets its color from a food dye similar to Brilliant Blue G (BBG) -- a compound that, as it turns out, is medically useful. Building on earlier research, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that injections of BBG can relieve mice of secondary spinal cord injuries. In September, they will start conducting human clinical trials.

BBG works by inhibiting the function of P2X7, a molecule that pervades the spinal cord and assists another molecule, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), in killing off healthy motor neurons. Because quantities of ATP flow to the spinal cord post-injury, significant secondary injuries occur, which is why thwarting ATP's activity is absolutely vital. 

The U of R researchers were able to do just that, via injections of BBG. While rodents that hadn't received the dose were never able to scurry around again following their injury, the mice that received the BBG regained their ability to walk (albeit with a limp).

The mice also turned temporarily blue, as a side-effect (the only one). The verdict here at Popsci.com is that it's only a matter of time before pet stores start selling a rainbow of rats. 

(And let us hope that pet stores realize that cats and rats are not stuffed animals or toys!)

By Anna Maria JakubekPosted 07.28.2009 at 3:01 pm

[Via CNN.com]