by Katy Grimes, Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As appearing in the California Globe
The agency that regulates rat poison must now turn to rat poisons
Wednesday morning, CBS13 reported that the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters building in downtown Sacramento has been fighting a rat infestation for more than five weeks. Apparently their “environmentally friendly” modes of rattus-rattus eradication have not worked. “After weeks of environmentally friendly, chemical-free pest control methods, the agency is now electing to use poison to kill the critters,” CBS13 reported.
This is ironic for two reasons:
- While Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and other large California cities are experiencing rat infestations within homeless camps, there is a movement to ban Rodenticides – rodent poisons.
CalEPA regulates rat poison… and its own building is infested with rattus-rattus. “The California Department of Pesticide Regulation enforces a ban passed in 2014 on super-toxic rodenticide-use beyond 50 feet of man-made structures,” CBS13 reported. - Additionally, AB 1788 by Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) will ban Rodenticides, California Globe reported in May. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Pesticide Regulation already regulate these products for efficacy, human health impacts and impacts to the environment.”
