EPA Ordered to Reconsider Bittering Agent Requirement in Rodenticides

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. District Judge Joel Rakoff on Monday instructed EPA to reconsider its 2001 decision to rescind a requirement that manufacturers add a bittering agent to rodenticides.

The case dates back to the agency’s Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) in September 1998, when EPA approved the use of rodenticides as long as manufacturers added a dye that made it more obvious if a child ingested the rodenticide. As part of the RED, EPA formed a Rodenticide Stakeholder Working Group, which included pest control industry representatives, medical doctors, several government agencies, CDC officials, public health officials, as well as environmental groups.

In 2001, EPA revised the RED to rescind that requirement, accepting a federal advisory committee’s conclusion that the risk of children’s exposure to rodenticides was minimal and that bittering agents and indicator dyes should not be required because of technical issues associated with this technology.

In November 2004, a pair of environmental groups – West Harlem Environmental Action and the Natural Resources Defense Council – filed suits, asking a federal judge to reinstate the bittering agent requirement.

According to the Washington Post, in ruling in favor of these groups, Rakoff wrote that "In short, the EPA lacked even the proverbial 'scintilla of evidence' justifying its reversal of the requirement it had imposed, after extensive study, only a few years before."

Bob Rosenberg, vice president of government affairs, National Pest Management Association, told PCT that Rakoff’s judgment and his statements were puzzling. “We thought with this particular issue EPA had undergone the most inclusive, transparent, elaborate process they had ever gone through in the re-regristraion of any chemical,” Rosenberg says.

Rockwell Labs CEO Cisse Spragins, a member of the Rodenticide Stakeholder Working Group since its formation in 1999, also expressed disappointment in the judge’s ruling.

“The judge may have thought because there were not enough rigorous studies there was not enough evidence, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Spragins told PCT. “There was enough compelling rationale from a number of viewpoints – not just one – that (the addition of bittering agents) was not something that was going to address the problem of poisoning.”

While some in the industry believe that bittering agents make rodenticides less efficacious, others are of the belief they have little or no effect on rodenticides.