Would a modern educated society allow their children to eat rat poison? I was shocked to find out that we do. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported last week that 10,000 toddlers are poisoned every year from the ingestion of rat poison; a sobering statistic that makes even a toxicologist who feels like he's seen it all stop in his tracks. You don't need to know the details regarding which chemicals are in rat poison and what they do to a toddler when ingested. It's obvious that this is a horrid chemical accident that shouldn't be allowed in one home, much less 10,000 annually. Fortunately many of these accidents are discovered soon enough for an antidote or stomach pump to work. But what kind of thinking allows this to occur? I'm not suggesting that anyone would stand by and watch a toddler break into a rat poison bait station. But yet the makers and the regulators know this is exactly what will happen in some percentage of homes, and it is allowed to go on.
The reason put forward is that the poison is needed in a rat infestation because rats carry disease and their bite can lead to all sorts of infections, not to mention trauma. The pesticide industry points to the case of the mother sleeping in bed with her 8-month-old to protect him from the rats at night and she smothered him -- isn't rat poison a better solution than that? The poison has to be sweet tasting so rats will eat it all up, but so will a little kid or pet if they find the pellets. Attempts by the government to get rat poison makers to spice it with bitter flavors so that it won't taste like candy to a toddler have been met with resistance by the industry -- it'll render the bait ineffective is the claim. And of course, there is the retort that the package warns against leaving it where a child or pet could reach it -- so it's really your fault if your kid succumbs to their product. The trouble with that logic is that kids and pets are very resourceful creatures who may outsmart adults who may not be thinking so clearly when overwhelmed by a rat problem, amidst who knows how many other emergencies. We shouldn't be placing a loaded gun in the hands of a child. Similarly we shouldn't be placing rat poison in the hands of a general public in which some members don't read labels or follow directions or even speak English. This is an environmental justice issue in which the urban poor are disproportionately affected -- 83 percent of the poisoned kids are African American or Latino. But it can happen in any family that brings rat poison into the home.
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