California’s proposed rollback of rat poison rules defies science and common sense |
A rodent management station with hole chewed by a rat in Peter Coutts Hills neighborhood in Stanford on Aug. 18.
Without providing evidence to justify it, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation is proposing changes to anticoagulant rat poison regulations that would expand where they can be used, including near grocery stores, restaurants and other commercial sites where they have been restricted for years.
The proposed rollbacks all but guarantee widespread anticoagulant use throughout California, a result that will be the exact opposite of what Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature intended. They would also directly contradict the Poison Free Wildlife Act, which prohibits loosening existing restrictions unless the Department of Pesticide Regulation can demonstrate a decline in wildlife exposure. It has not.
The contamination of California’s wildlife is already overwhelming. A 2021 study of owls in Northern California found that 62% had been exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides, and all seven female owls examined carried residues of these compounds in their ovaries. A more recent statewide report found anticoagulants in more than 68% of animals tested, and a 2024 report found that of 365 coyotes studied in urban and suburban areas of southern California 98.1% had been exposed.
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Here in the Bay Area, the anticoagulant crisis is........