Childproof/EPA eases up on rat poison

[GAspnes]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5095833.html


This time, nobody at the Environmental Protection Agency is coming forward to trumpet another milestone in regulatory reform. But it's easy to see why the agency prefers a "no comment" stance regarding its reversal of past practice on rat poison -- the sort of government misstep that might leave anyone speechless.

Some poison-makers -- but not all -- argued that these additives made their products less effective in killing rats, and that this concern should outweigh the risks of harm to "nontarget species," which included domestic pets as well as little kids. And in 2001, after giving the companies unusual access to its deliberations, EPA decided to abandon the child-proofing rules.

So far this year, poison-control centers have reported about 50,000 cases of children under 6 requiring medical treatment for accidental ingestion of rat poisons, whose effects can include internal bleeding, anemia and coma. That's three times as many as in the first full year of the childproofing requirements.

<snip>

At the time of the mercury rollbacks, we thought they might take the cake for a cynical, business-driven recasting of sensible national policy. It seems we lacked imagination. To bow to business pressure and take the child-proofing out of rat poison seems the stuff of parody, something you might read in the Onion. But this is no joke.


Read the whole editorial. Another under-the-radar rollback brought to you by the compassionate conservatives.

[shoelace414]

1. Figured it out

nevermind