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New Rat Poison (1080) Is Deadly, And the Rodents Like the StuffBy Harrison HumprietWashington, Nov. 6 Theanswer to one of mankind's greatest scourges—bubonic plague—mav he in an innocent looking white powder.'The powder is the new rat poison.1080 .(ten-eighty), its chemical name is sodium fluoracetate. it gets Its numerical designation becauseIt was the 1,080th chemical compound tested-in the. government’s two-year wartime search for an effective weapon against disease-spreading rodents., It k111* quicker than anyknown poison except ' strychnine (which must be imported) and— amazingly—rate like the stuff. Strychnine has to be disguised.All authorities agree that the rat is man's wiliest and most dangerous animat foe.. -Bubonic plague, transmitted to man by the fleas that infest rats, is estimated to have killed morehumans than *11 the wars in history.In the fourteenth century, the plague—then called “black death —spread its tentacles throughout Europe. It took the* lives of 25,000,-0C0 persons, or one-fourth of the population. In recent times, the disease sprang up again in India and was spread in rat-infested ships to nearly every country on earth. In India alone during the quarter of. a century from 1898 to 1923 it caused 10.B22.33l recorded deaths. Outbreaks in U. S.On several occasions since 1900 plague outbreaks have occurred in the United States. The most notable ones were in San Francisco in 1907. New Orleans in 1914 and Galveston in 1920. Prompt rat eradication work by the U. S. public health service prevented the disease from getting out of control on each occasion.There have been several hundred deaths from the plague In the United States, however.A form of the plague has been found in several different types of rodents in the western states, including ground squirrels,' woodrats, deer mice and woodchucks. Poison 1080 is deadly to all of thaws and is equally effective in a wide variety of baits and in water.Other rat-borne disease* extremely disabling to man are typhus fever, spirochetal jaundice, rat-bite fever, rabies and tulcremia. In addition, rats infest other animals with diseases communicable to man and are believed responsible for many livestock disease fatalities.Property Oinufe is HighProperty damage caused by rata in the United States alone is estimated by officials of the U. s. fish and wildlife service at more than $200,000,000 a year.Rats attack packaged food In stores, spoiling much more than they actually eat. They gnaw and rum fabrics and upholstery in dry goods and furniture stores. On f?r™ they kill lambs, pigs and chickens, eat their way into flour and grain bags and spill or foul the contents.The fish and wildlife service estimates that there are nearly as many rats In the United States as there , are persons. On farms there are about 60,000.000 rats. They cause property loss estimated at SI a year for each ratRat population In large cities has been reduced nearly 50 per cent In! the past 25 years, but property loss is approximately $2 a year for each i ratPoison Supplies Cut OffWith the outbreak of the war, supplies of the customary poisons used In rodent control—thallium, red squill and strychnine—were curtailed or cut off. Thallium was Imported from Europe, principally Germany, Belgium and France; red squill from the Mediterranean region and strychnine f rom the Fa? East.It was for this reason that the government, with the office of scientific research and development and the U. S. fish and wildlife service cooperating, began Its search for a new domestic rat poison whichresulted in the development of 1060.
Newspaper Details
Emporia Gazette
Emporia, Kansas, US
Tue, Nov 06, 1945
Page 1
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FL, USA 29 Jan 2019
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