United States	Press Office (A-107)
Environmental Protection	Washington DC 20460
Agency
Environmental
News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1980 sihhiann (2n?) 7R5-m/U	
The Environmental Protection Agency said today
it will allow a rodenticide called Compound 1081 to
be used only against rats in sewers. Use will be
restricted to Certified Commercial Applicators.
The risk of children, pets, and wildlife accidentally
eating the rat killer, the Agency said, is too great to
allow its use in locations other than sewers. Compound
1081, sold as fluoroacetamide, could have been used to
kill rats around homes, farms, and elsewhere, as well
as in sewers.
EPA opened its investigation of Compound 1081 in 1976
after three children in Durant, Oklahoma, died from
eating wafers soaked with the poison. They found the
wafers in a pest control operator's unlocked truck.
That investigation has now been completed and the manu-
facturer last November voluntarily revised the label on
the product to limit the use specifically to rats in
sewers.
ArCHEM Corporation of Portsmouth, Ohio, the sole
manufacturer, already has the product available for sale
under the new label. Previous labels did not clearly
describe where the product could be used, so that it
was possible that applicators could have used it in a
variety of places. The new labels restrict use of the
product to rats in sewers and say only certified
applicators may use it.
The EPA inquiry into the risks and benefits of Compound
1081 is known as rebuttable presumption against
registration (RPAR). In this case, the investigation
(more)

-------
-2-
was prompted.because (1) an antidote to the poison is not
available in 
-------