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Public Health

Public Health Threats

Native and imported species of rodents cause a range of health problems for people and animals because they live closely with us in cities, suburbs and rural areas. The significance of the health threats posed by rodents and their filth means control of their populations is essential to health and safety. Health threats to people and animals include:

  • Bites and gnawing vulnerable populations such as children and the infirmed in cities and rural locations. Such bites can result in death, maiming and disease.
  • Contamination of stored produce, grain and animal feed with rodent urine and feces that can transmit disease to both humans and livestock. Similar contamination from urine, feces, saliva, dander and nasal secretions can occur in home kitchens where rodents are present and occupants consume contaminated food or water. In a 24-hour period, a Norway rat can pass .03 ounces of urine and produce 50 droppings.
  • Diseases that can affect people or animals include:
    • Rat-bite or Haverhill Fever
    • Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
    • Leptospirosis and Weil’s Disease
    • Cryptosporidiosis
    • Toxoplasmosis
    • Salmonellosis or Food Poisoning
    • Trichinosis
    • Murine Tuphus Fever
    • Plague
    • Rickettsialpox
    • Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis

The Truth About the Public Health Threat

The public health risks from rodents are both indisputable and pervasive throughout the U.S.:

  • In 1999, an American Housing Survey found that more than eight million housing units in the U.S. had rat and mouse infestation.
  • According to a recent public health training program sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “In recent years urban communities have experienced a resurgence of the rodent problem. In some communities more than 50 percent of the premises are infested with rats and mice.”
  • Thousands of people every year, predominantly children and the elderly, are bitten by rodents. These bite victims may be further victimized by contracting rodent-borne diseases.
  • A list of diseases spread directly and indirectly to humans from rodents can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/index.htm. One particularly deadly disease, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, was first recognized in 1993 and has since been identified throughout the U.S. Over one-third of the nearly 500 cases identified have resulted in death, even in young, healthy individuals.
  • In addition to rat bites, rodent-borne diseases are spread through “consuming food or water that is contaminated with rodent feces, coming in contact with surface water contaminated with rodent urine, or through breathing in germs that may be present in rodent urine or droppings that have been stirred into the air. . . . Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents.”
  • Rodents also cause widespread economic damage to crops amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in the U.S. alone. Rodents also damage houses and other structures.
  • Invasive rodents have devastated native populations of wildlife,
    particularly indigenous bird species, on scores of islands throughout the world.

Working for Safety

Since 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, rodenticide manufacturers and those involved with consumer rodenticides have been working to ensure rodenticides can be used safely by consumers, with special considerations given to preventing children’s exposures. Key among the recommendations to protect children were those for easier-to-read product labels; educational materials for consumers, including Web sites; changes to the products themselves; and gathering real data about how children may come into contact with products to ensure steps taken to minimize exposure actually work. None of these recommendations have been adopted by EPA.

In 2006, rodenticide manufacturers – now supporting the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use – again presented a number of steps EPA could take to minimize unintentional exposure to children and wildlife. These steps included easier-to-read product labels; point-of-sale, bi-lingual educational materials, including how to implement an integrated pest management program and dispose of used products safely; and educational Web site. Again, EPA has yet to adopt these simple steps, but instead proposed in January 2007 its own “Risk Mitigation Decision for Nine Rodenticides,” which, if adopted, would affect all rodenticide bait products used in the United States. The proposed mitigation would require all second-generation anti-coagulant rodenticides – some 90 percent of all rodenticides available to consumers, farmers, ranchers and small business owners -- be applied only by professional certified applicators.

For more than 25 years safe, effective and affordable rodenticide products have been available to protect families, homes, animals and property.

EPA’s “Risk Mitigation,” while attempting to increase protections for children and wildlife, may actually increase public health and wildlife risk by making products unavailable to those who cannot afford professional pest control or cannot afford the substantial price increase necessary to meet proposed bait station requirements.

On January 17, 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued proposed risk mitigation measures for rodenticide bait products containing nine active ingredients: brodifacoum, bromadilone, defethialone, chlorophacinone, diphacinone, warfarin, zinc phosphide, bromethalin, and cholecalciferol. EPA’s proposed measures are based on extreme and unsupported assumptions about potential risks from rodenticide products. These proposed measures, if implemented, will drive up the costs of effective, widely available, and currently affordable rodenticide products; products relied upon by millions of consumers to control rodents that threaten public health by spreading disease, contaminating food, and destroying property. Indeed, rodenticides are a critical component of Integrated Pest Management -- a comprehensive approach to pest management that relies on a series of interventions to effectively manage rodents and their destructive effects. Despite the clear threats posed by rodents, EPA fails to assess the likely increases in public health risks from its proposed mitigation measures. For example, EPA recommends that consumers use glue boards as an alternative to second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. Yet, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explicitly recommends that consumers avoid using glue boards because of the increased “risk of being exposed to diseases.