{"id":353426,"date":"2025-12-17T07:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353426\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T07:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:40:09","slug":"common-household-rat-poisons-found-to-pose-unacceptable-risk-to-wildlife-as-animal-advocates-push-for-ban-pesticides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353426\/","title":{"rendered":"Common household rat poisons found to pose unacceptable risk to wildlife as animal advocates push for ban | Pesticides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commonly available rat poisons pose unacceptable risks to native wildlife, according to a government review that has stopped short of recommending a blanket ban on the products, to the consternation of animal advocates.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited review of first- and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides \u2013 FGARs and SGARs \u2013 has recommended the cancellation of some products, but a large array of waxes, pellets and blocks could continue to be sold to consumers subject to stricter labelling and conditions of use.<\/p>\n

Baits containing anticoagulant rodenticides are widely available in supermarkets and garden stores such as Bunnings, Coles and Woolworths.<\/p>\n

The baits have come under scrutiny because they have been found in dead native animals such as tawny frogmouths<\/a>, powerful owls and quolls that had eaten poisoned rats and mice.<\/p>\n

The second-generation products are more toxic and are banned from public sale in the United States and parts of Canada and highly restricted in the European Union.<\/p>\n

Commercially available rat poisons have been found in dead native animals. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Consumers can identify SGARs in Australia<\/a> by checking whether they contain one of the following active ingredients: brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, difenacoum and flocoumafen. There are three FGAR active ingredients registered for use in Australia: warfarin, coumatetralyl and diphacinone.<\/p>\n

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), in response to the review<\/a> which was published Tuesday, has proposed a temporary suspension of SGARs while public consultation about the recommendations is under way. If the suspension goes ahead the APVMA said the affected products could still be used, but only in accordance with the proposed stricter conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf suspended, the importation or manufacture of SGARs would be illegal. They could only be sold if they meet the new strict conditions around pack size and use,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Holly Parsons, of BirdLife Australia, said the review \u201cdoesn\u2019t go far enough and crucially, fails to address secondary poisoning that is killing owls and birds of prey\u201d such as when, for example, a native bird ate a poisoned rat.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite overwhelming evidence provided in support of the complete removal of SGARs from public sale, we\u2019re yet to see proposed restrictions that come close to achieving this,\u201d Parsons said.<\/p>\n

She said consumers should be able to \u201cwalk into stores under the assumption that the products available to them aren\u2019t going to inadvertently kill native animals\u201d but the APVMA has put \u201cthe responsibility on to the consumer with an expectation that labels are fully read and followed \u2013 and we know that won\u2019t be the case\u201d.<\/p>\n

The review also recommended cancelling the registration of anticoagulant rodenticides baits that come in powder and liquid form or which do not contain dyes or bittering agents, finding they do not meet safety criteria.<\/p>\n

But it found other baits sold as waxes, pellets and blocks could continue to be sold to consumers with some changes to labelling and conditions of use.<\/p>\n

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The APVMA found that under \u201ccurrent instructions\u201d it could not be satisfied that these types of products would not have unintended, harmful effects on non-target animals, including native wildlife, nor that they would not pose undue safety risks to people who handled them including vulnerable people such as children.<\/p>\n

But it found the conditions of product registration and other \u201crelevant particulars\u201d could be varied in such a way as to allow the authority \u201cto be satisfied that products will meet the safety criteria\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of the proposed new instructions would include limiting mice baits to indoor use only when in tamper-resistant bait stations; placing outdoor rat baits in tamper-proof stations within two metres of outside a building; changes to pack sizes; and tighter directions for the clean-up and disposal of carcasses and uneaten baits.<\/p>\n

The recommendations are subject to three months of public consultation before the authority makes a final decision.<\/p>\n

John White is an associate professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Deakin University. In 2023 he worked with a team of researchers that studied rat poison in dead tawny frogmouths and owls, who found 95% of frogmouths had rodenticides in their livers and 68% of frogmouths tested had liver rodenticide levels consistent with causing death or significant toxicological impacts.<\/p>\n

He said the authority\u2019s proposed changes failed to properly tackle the problem that SGARS, from an environmental perspective, were \u201cjust too toxic\u201d.<\/p>\n

White said even if the authority tightened the conditions of use and labelling rules there was no guarantee that consumers would follow new instructions. \u201cWe should be completely banning these things, not tinkering at the edges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Woolworths said the supermarket would await the APVMA\u2019s final recommendations \u201cto inform a responsible approach to these products, together with the suppliers of them\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said the chain stocked \u201ca small range of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides for customers who might have a problem with rats or mice in their home, workplace, and especially in rural areas where it\u2019s important for customers to have access to these products\u201d while also selling \u201ca number of alternative options\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bunnings and Coles declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commonly available rat poisons pose unacceptable risks to native wildlife, according to a government review that has stopped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-353426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}