Booker and Colleagues Call on the EPA to Protect Children and Endangered Species From Rodenticide Poisonings

Letter

Dear Administrator Regan:

We thank the EPA for issuing a proposal to strengthen protections for children and non-target
species from rodenticides, and urge the EPA to approve strong mitigation measures. The current
allowable use of rodenticides poses a threat to human health and endangered species.
Rodenticides are powerful poisons that don't just kill the target pests, but also kill non-target
animals, including pets and predators of rodents. Further, rodenticides that are not properly
secured threaten the safety of humans, particularly children, who may be poisoned when exposed
to them.
Rodenticides pose a risk of poisoning in households where the rodenticides are accessible to
children and pets. From 2017-2021, the Centers for Disease Control reported 40,808 poisonings
of humans from rodenticides. The majority of these exposures occurred in children under 5 years
old.
Further, rodenticides pose a persistent threat to non-target wildlife, especially threatened and
endangered species. These poisonings impact predators, such as red-tailed hawks, barn owls,
mountain lions, and the critically endangered California Condors, who consume the rodenticides
through eating poisoned rodents. Other species, such as squirrels, opossum, raccoons, and the
endangered Attwater's prairie chicken, die by consuming the poison directly.

There is a need for careful, scientific review of the broader harms of the current uses of
rodenticides, and ways these can be mitigated. We thank the EPA for proposing measures that
are protective of children's health and endangered species, while maintaining reasonable
rodenticide access, and urge the EPA to adopt these measures. "

Source