Anti Federalist
07-23-2019, 05:47 PM
And now, rat poisons that don't kill...
As rats overrun California cities, state moves to ban powerful pest-killers
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article232687952.html
BY RYAN SABALOW AND PHILLIP REESE
JULY 23, 2019 05:15 AM, UPDATED 3 HOURS 32 MINUTES AGO
The rats were winning.
There were so many earlier this summer outside the CalEPA building in downtown Sacramento officials had to close its outdoor playground out of fear state employees’ kids would catch rodent-borne diseases.
To fight back, building officials set out a controversial type of rat poison whose use may soon be banned statewide by the California Legislature. The poison didn’t stay out very long once word got out the state’s top environmental regulators were using a poison widely condemned by California’s powerful environmental groups.
“Effective immediately, I’m putting a moratorium on the use of rodenticides around the 1001 I Street Building, “ CalEPA agency undersecretary Serena McIlwain said on June 19 in an email to staffers. “We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will work aggressively to find effective, less toxic alternatives.”
The rats-versus-pesticide fight at the building that houses the Department of Pesticide Regulation couldn’t haven been more carefully designed to highlight the complexities of two budding crises in California.
The state is seeing a troubling resurgence of rodents, which can carry a wide array of diseases that have been around since the Middle Ages. The megalopolis of Los Angeles County, for one, has seen skyrocketing cases of one such disease, typhus. At the same time, researchers are finding widely used rodent poisons at sometimes lethal levels in the bodies of beloved California predators such as birds of prey and mountain lions.
Remarkably, anticoagulant rodenticide have been found in almost all of the mountain lions tested in California. Each year, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife performs dozens of autopsies known as necropsies on mountain lion carcasses. Nine out of every 10 cougars tested have traces of anticoagulant poisons in their livers.
As a result of the widespread wildlife poisoning, nearly every prominent environmental group in the state is advocating for a ban on anticoagulant rodenticides.
The needs of native wildlife appear be winning in this overwhelmingly liberal, environmentally conscious state. The California Legislature is poised to ban the toxins over the objections of well-financed chemical industry lobbyists and pest control operators, apartment owners and restaurateurs wary of rodent infestations.
Much more at link, too long to copypasta...
As rats overrun California cities, state moves to ban powerful pest-killers
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article232687952.html
BY RYAN SABALOW AND PHILLIP REESE
JULY 23, 2019 05:15 AM, UPDATED 3 HOURS 32 MINUTES AGO
The rats were winning.
There were so many earlier this summer outside the CalEPA building in downtown Sacramento officials had to close its outdoor playground out of fear state employees’ kids would catch rodent-borne diseases.
To fight back, building officials set out a controversial type of rat poison whose use may soon be banned statewide by the California Legislature. The poison didn’t stay out very long once word got out the state’s top environmental regulators were using a poison widely condemned by California’s powerful environmental groups.
“Effective immediately, I’m putting a moratorium on the use of rodenticides around the 1001 I Street Building, “ CalEPA agency undersecretary Serena McIlwain said on June 19 in an email to staffers. “We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will work aggressively to find effective, less toxic alternatives.”
The rats-versus-pesticide fight at the building that houses the Department of Pesticide Regulation couldn’t haven been more carefully designed to highlight the complexities of two budding crises in California.
The state is seeing a troubling resurgence of rodents, which can carry a wide array of diseases that have been around since the Middle Ages. The megalopolis of Los Angeles County, for one, has seen skyrocketing cases of one such disease, typhus. At the same time, researchers are finding widely used rodent poisons at sometimes lethal levels in the bodies of beloved California predators such as birds of prey and mountain lions.
Remarkably, anticoagulant rodenticide have been found in almost all of the mountain lions tested in California. Each year, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife performs dozens of autopsies known as necropsies on mountain lion carcasses. Nine out of every 10 cougars tested have traces of anticoagulant poisons in their livers.
As a result of the widespread wildlife poisoning, nearly every prominent environmental group in the state is advocating for a ban on anticoagulant rodenticides.
The needs of native wildlife appear be winning in this overwhelmingly liberal, environmentally conscious state. The California Legislature is poised to ban the toxins over the objections of well-financed chemical industry lobbyists and pest control operators, apartment owners and restaurateurs wary of rodent infestations.
Much more at link, too long to copypasta...