NYPJ
The city has confiscated 140 pounds of banned rat poison this month but street vendors keep selling the stuff – as one expert warned the black market could have deadly consequences.
Local medical professionals are bracing to handle more patients exposed to the effects of the poisons with one popular but “genuinely scary” ingredient blamed for the tragic death of four kids in Texas, said Adam Blumenberg, associate professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.
“A lot of what [vendors] sell is illegal, but not that dangerous as long as no one actually eats it,” Blumenberg told The Post. “I’ve noticed a sudden spike in rat poisons containing phosphides, which are illegal and genuinely scary.
“Phosphides release a deadly gas which can harm or kill people who breathe it,” the doc added. “I expect we will see serious illness and possibly fatalities in NYC related to these products.”
While phosphide — sold under the label Push Out — hasn’t been spotted again by officials since the city’s crackdown, other illegal and dangerous rodenticides like Sniper DDVP and Tempo are readily available on folding tables along Washington Heights’ St. Nicholas Avenue shopping corridor.
The toxins are often imported illegally into the US and can cause seizures, coma, cancer and death, according to the city Department of Health.
Seventeen inspections led to four summonses issued to vendors for illegal poisons since the start of the month — but Post reporters found the poisons for sale along St. Nicholas Avenue as recently as Sunday.
“Yeah they’ve been giving us problems for selling, they say everything’s illegal,” one vendor said. “What do you mean why are we selling it? We need money, that’s why.”
While the rest of the city saw roughly a 1% decrease in rat sightings between 2023 and 2024, rat sightings in Washington Heights and Inwood’s Manhattan Community Board 12 increased by more than 15% — all as Mayor Eric Adams fights a multi-million dollar war on rats.
A representative for council member Carmen De La Rosa’s office told The Post that the pol spoke to Washington Heights vendors in late March to warn the sellers of the dangerous and illicit nature of the pesticides — including phosphide, which spews deadly fumes when mixed with water.
“Our main fear was that people would panic and throw it down their drain, flush it down their toilet, and then create that gas,” De La Rosa’s rep said. “Most people are probably using these things in their kitchens … where we have water and other liquids, so it’s a matter of making sure we can get rid of it so that no one gets hurt.”
But the problem is hardly contained to Upper Manhattan, according to the council member’s office. Most recently, the pesticides have been tied to toxic exposures in the metro region, including one family in Queens and another on Long Island.
“It’s really, really, really dangerous to humans,” the rep added. “We’re not aware of any cases in [Washington Heights], but it’s difficult to single out.”
At the root of the problem is the Big Apple’s ongoing battle against rodents — but New Yorkers taking matters into their own hands may put lives on the line, officials said.
“We have landlords who are quite negligent, we have roach infestations and rodent infestations,” De La Rosa’s rep said. “They’ll buy whatever they need to address the issue of these nuisances in their own house, but sometimes it’s not necessarily something that’s safe to use.
“We just want to make sure everyone is OK.”
More than 8,200 cases of rodenticide poisoning were reported in the US in 2023, according to the latest annual report from America’s Poison Centers. While most of the health impacts were minor, more than 2,200 included treatment in a health care facility and two of those exposures resulted in death.