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Cancellation Process for Certain Rodenticide Products

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Current as of December 2011

EPA is initiating regulatory action to cancel and remove from the market certain consumer-use mouse and rat poison bait products. The manufacturers of these products have refused to voluntarily adopt risk mitigation measures that are necessary to protect children, pets, and wildlife.

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Notice of Intent to Cancel (NOIC)

EPA has taken a significant step under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) towards cancelling and removing from the consumer market 20 mouse and rat poison products, by forwarding to the FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) for review a draft Notice of Intent to Cancel and Notice of Denial. The 20 mouse and rat poison products are sold to general consumers as loose baits, or as pastes or blocks, without adequately protective bait stations that prevent access by children and pets. Eleven of the 20 products also contain second generation anticoagulants, active ingredients that pose particular hazards to non-target wildlife. EPA has found that these 20 rodenticide products generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, particularly since new rodent control products that meet the Agency’s safety criteria are now widely available, effective and affordable, and pose significantly less risk to people and the environment. EPA also plans to deny the pending applications for registration of four other rodenticide products that would pose similar unreasonable adverse effects.

As part of the administrative cancellation process in FIFRA section 6(b), EPA convened the Scientific Advisory Panel on November 29 through December 1, 2011, to obtain independent review of the scientific basis for the proposed cancellation of the 20 rodenticide products. The Agency provided relevant documents including the draft Notice of Intent to Cancel to the SAP in advance of the public meeting. Consistent with FIFRA cancellation provisions, EPA also is seeking comment on the draft Notice of Intent to Cancel from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. EPA plans to consider comments and input received prior to issuing a final Notice of Intent to Cancel to the manufacturers of the non-conforming rodenticide products in 2012. The 20 products may be legally sold and used until the cancellation process is completed.

Future steps in the cancellation process are discussed in Pesticide Cancellation Under EPA's Own Initiative.

EPA's Draft Notice of Intent to Cancel and related documents, and information about the SAP meeting are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0718 at Regulations.gov

Mouse and Rat Poison Products Subject to Cancellation

New, More Protective Mouse and Rat Poison Bait Station Products

EPA urges consumers, especially those with children and pets, to use mouse and rat poison products that have adopted the additional safety measures the Agency has determined will better protect children, pets, and non-target wildlife from accidental exposure. See a list of consumer-use mouse and rat poison products that meet EPA’s more protective risk reduction goals.

EPA believes the products in the table below cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment and the Agency is initiating action to cancel these products. Until EPA completes the administrative cancellation procedures required by law (FIFRA section 6(b)), these products may be legally sold and used according to the terms, conditions, and instructions of their most recent Agency approved labels.

The list of products is subject to change. EPA will update this list as needed.

Images of the product labels in this table may be viewed in EPA’s Pesticide Product Labeling System (PPLS).

Manufacturer EPA Registration Number Product Name
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-3 D-CON CONCENTRATE KILLS RATS & MICE
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-4 D-CON READY MIXED KILLS RATS & MICE
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-9 D-CON MOUSE PRUFE KILLS MICE
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-15 D-CON PELLETS KILLS RATS & MICE
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-65 D-CON MOUSE PRUFE II
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-66 D-CON PELLETS GENERATION II
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-74 D-CON BAIT PELLETS II
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-81 D-CON READY MIXED GENERATION II
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-85 D-CON MOUSE-PRUFE III
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-86 D-CON BAIT PELLETS III
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-87 D-CON II READY MIX BAITBITS III
Reckitt Benckiser LLC 3282-88 D-CON BAIT PACKS III
Liphatech Inc. 7173-247 GENERATION MEAL BAIT PACKS
Liphatech Inc. 7173-283 DIFETHIALONE BAIT STATION
Liphatech Inc. 7173-285 DIFETHIALONE 6G PASTE PL PKS
Spectrum Group Division of United Industries Corporation 8845-39 RID-A-RAT RAT & MOUSE KILLER
Spectrum Group Division of United Industries Corporation 8845-125 HOT SHOT SUDDEN DEATH BRAND MOUSE KILLER
Spectrum Group Division of United Industries Corporation 8845-126 HOT SHOT SUDDEN DEATH BRAND RAT KILLER 1
Spectrum Group Division of United Industries Corporation 8845-127 HOT SHOT SUDDEN DEATH BRAND RAT & MOUSE KILLER
Spectrum Group Division of United Industries Corporation 8845-128 HOT SHOT SUDDEN DEATH BRAND MOUSE KILLER BAIT STATION

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Basis for EPA’s Cancellation Action

After more than a decade of Agency review and public involvement, EPA issued the 2008 Risk Mitigation Decision for Ten Rodenticides. To reduce the risks mouse and rat poison products pose to children, pets, and non-target wildlife, EPA requested in this decision document that manufacturers adopt certain risk mitigation measures. The three manufacturers with products that are now subject to EPA's draft Notice of Intent to Cancel are:

As a result of these manufacturers’ refusal to adopt the risk reduction measures, EPA is pursuing cancellation of their non-conforming mouse and rat poison products, listed in the table above, with the intention of removing these products from the market.

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Risk Concerns with Consumer-Use Mouse and Rat Poisons

Concerns for Children

Children are particularly susceptible to accidental poisoning because they tend to play on floors and explore by putting items in their mouths.

From 1993 until 2008, the American Association of Poison Control Centers received between 12,000 and 15,000 reports of rat and mouse poison exposures each year to children under six years of age.

Concerns for Pets

Accidental pet exposures to rodenticide products have also been identified as an area of concern. While the Agency does not currently have reliable estimates of the number of pet incidents involving mouse and rat poison, EPA is aware that pet exposure to mouse and rat poison often leads to severe injury or death in exposed pets.

Concerns for Wildlife

Non-target wildlife may be poisoned when users fail to take adequate precautions to prevent wildlife from consuming baits containing mouse and rat poisons. Requiring that mouse and rat poisons be sold with bait stations designed to make it more difficult for creatures other than mice and rats to access the mouse and rat poison reduces the likelihood of primary poisoning of non-target wildlife.

Secondary poisonings, where predators or scavengers consume contaminated rodents, have been well documented in large cats, birds of prey, and other species, including species listed as threatened or endangered. Certain mouse and rat poisons known as second generation anticoagulants pose particular risks of secondary poisoning because they are retained in animals’ bodies to a high degree. The Agency believes limiting the sale of second generation anticoagulant mouse and rat poisons from the consumer market will significantly reduce secondary poisonings of non-target wildlife.

Additional Information

Further information on EPA’s review of rodenticides
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/.

Information about mouse and rat poison products for consumer use
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/consumer-prod.html.

List of mouse and rat poison bait station products that meet EPA’s more protective risk reduction goals
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/rodent-bait-station.html.

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