Mitigation of Rodenticide Bait Products

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Under a Rodenticide Mitigation Decision (RMD), EPA required new safety measures to protect children, pets, and non-target wildlife from accidental exposure to rodent bait products. In November 2011, EPA published a draft Notice of Intent to Cancel (NOIC) twenty consumer use products which do not conform to the new safety measures. There are effective and comparably priced replacement products on the market which do meet the Agency's safety requirements. Because rodents are public health pests, EPA has consulted with CDC to ensure that its actions do not present public health concerns or leave the public without adequate rodent control. EPA included state, regional and tribal regulatory personnel, and environmental justice advocacy organizations in the development and implementation of this decision and proposed cancellation strategy.

Tribal entities were allegedly notified and provided an opportunity to raise concerns through the Office of Pesticide Program's regularly scheduled conference calls with its regulatory partners and program updates and alerts distributed via email in May 2008 when the RMD was issued and again in the fall of 2011 when the draft NOIC was published. EPA did not request formal consultation with tribes on this action because it believed that the proposed cancellations did not appear to have substantial direct effects on any Indian tribe, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. However, EPA recently received letters from two tribal leaders and a Senior Center in Arizona expressing concerns about the cancellations.
As such, EPA has scheduled a conference call for Tuesday, August 14th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern to discuss the cancellations. The call-in number and access code are as follows:
Call-In Number: 1-866-299-3188
Conference Code: 703-305-6979
A link to EPA's webpage which covers this issue: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/