Acid Base Indicator

TITLE/PROBLEMS * Can peanut butter with seaweed extract be a main ingredient in making poisons for rats? * “Peanut-Weed Arsenic Poison” * “Peanut-Weed Rat Killer”

RRS
Why Do Poisons Matter?
“Long after the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, and the subsequent birth of the environmental movement, the days of concern over the effects of at-home and commercial pesticide use are long from over. Carson's book described numerous environmental impacts of indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the United States and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without understanding their effects on the environment or human health. Her book facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Through her masterpiece Silent Spring, she accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation regarding the safety of their products, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. Forty years later, we can still find certain parallels between DDT and the use and consequences of other commonly used pesticides today.

One of the classes of pesticides of great concern to our wildlife populations, as well as predatory Image created by Jason Clay Lewis. d-CON is one of the brands of anticoagulant rat poisons that are of particular concern for our local wildlife as well as wildlife globally. Species worldwide are anticoagulant rodenticides. We are particularly interested in this poison because of our research focused on wild carnivore populations, and although we have detected other toxicants such as heavy metals in some animals, the poisons of greatest prevalence, with potential detrimental, population-level effects, seem to be anticoagulant rodenticides.

Below are facts about anticoagulant rat poisons, some of which are in shocking parallel with the consequences that were found to be associated with the DDT, banned in 1972. Both classes definitively share that they are indiscriminate killers and they can move through multiple levels of a food chain. Anticoagulants are also suspected to, like DDT was shown to do, impact animal reproduction and potentially have immunological consequences for those animals chronically exposed. Finally, as with DDT prior to its banning, the scale of its environmental impacts were unexamined. Overall, anticoagulant rat poisons may not have the same fear-inducing carcinogenic toxicity as DDT, but there are several shocking parallels between their use and their effects on wildlife populations today. As a biologist studying this issue, Laurel Serieys believes that if we would not settle for the consequences associated with poisons like DDT, why should we be content to use poisons like anticoagulants with such brazen abandon? She advocates that tighter restrictions must be made to regulate the use and availability of these poisons, and has already shared data available from the Santa Monica Mountains with agencies such as Department of Fish and Game and California Department of Pesticide Regulation. In our at-home pest-control efforts, poisons should- and must- be last resort tools for the control of pest species. However, they are frequently the first step we seem to take when a pesky rodent issue arises. Read below to learn why poisons should not be the first step. If you use poisons at home- do you know the consequences for local wildlife?” * UrbanCarnivores.com

“It's a start. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution this week urging that residents and businesses stop the use and sale of 10 rat poisons after a groundbreaking study documented the impact of their heavy use in large, illicit outdoor marijuana farms. These high-powered rodenticides were found to be the likely leading cause of death for the Pacific fisher -- rare, weaselly, hard to find critters native to the North Coast.
The study, released in June of last year by biologists from UC Davis found that almost 80 percent of fishers found dead by researchers between 2006 and 2011 had been exposed to high levels of anticoagulant rodenticide -- and that most of the deaths had occurred between mid-April and mid-May, prime outdoor marijuana planting season.
Moreover the study found that the fishers likely absorbed the poison by eating small rodents, meaning that the rodenticides are moving through the food chain. The rippling effect of the poisons is jeopardizing not only whole groups of wood rats, deer mice and other small rodents, but may be posing a deadly risk to the larger animals that feed on them -- threatened or endangered species like spotted owls, condors and martens.
To sum up, thanks to the heavy use of rat poisons, the region's food chain may be in danger of partial or total collapse. Tuesday's resolution, brought by 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell, cited confirmed rodenticide poisonings in 25 species.”
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9615242/Mutant-rats-grow-resistant-to-rat-poison-in-Wiltshire.html