The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-02-10
FIRE WARDEN
FEARS RAT POISONS
contains Phosphorus and May Cause
Spontaneous Combustion-Warn-
ing to Merchants.

MONTPELIER, Feb. 10.-Recently J..
u. Brown of the state insurance de-
partment received a report from a mer-
chant IN the county asking advice rel
atlVe to whether certain rat extermi-
majors contained ingredients that would
cause fire, one having developed from
combustion of one of these it was
feared. Mr.. Brown had several of the
rat killers analysed, with the result
that they We're found to be dangerous
when stored, and TODAY he mailed TO
the several merchants of the state the
Following letter cautioning them about
these poisons..
To Whom 1t May Concern: The at
tention of this department having been
called to the spontaneous combustion
of certain socalled "rat killers" and
believing that fires have occurred in
this state by reason of the presence of
rat killers containing PHOSPHORUS, I
desire to call the attention of mer-
chants who carry any of these in stock.
to reports received by this department
after submitting various rat killers for
examination and tests.
A. j. P. No-SmeH rat killer.
Rat Bis-kit
Stearns' Electric rat and roach paste.
common Sense rat exterminator.
All or these preparations contain
elementary PHOSPHORUS in varying
amounts. In some instances, a state
ment as to PHOSPHORUS percentage is
printed on the label of the container.
examination of the samples, and quail
tatlve chemical tests, confirm the pres
ence of phophorous, and the fire hazard
OF these products is judged to be rela-
lively smalf with the exception of the
" A. j. P. No-Smell rat killer though
the others are subject to criticism.
The following is the report in full
received from the laboratory in con-
nection with the GA. J. P. No-Smell
rat killer:
Answering yours of Dee. 10 in re-
gard to the above product, there can
be little doubt but that this material
is extremely hazardous and constitutes
& very great hazard in storage and use.
In support of this we can advise
that upon opening the can when it
reached us it was found that large
amount of gases had ,been liberated
from the mixture and these gases were
under considerable pressure from the
nature of the container The act of
opening the can produced a violent ex-
plosion due to the liberation of these
compressed gases with the result that
large amounts of the compound itself
were blown foreibly in all directions.
1t is quite evident that this mixture
contains very high percentage of
PHOSPHORUS in the elementary state.
We presume that YOU are sufficiently
aware of the extremely hazardous ma
ture of PHOSPHORUS and that we need
not comment any further on this one
point The compound produces large
quantities of fumes and evolution of
gases when exposed to the air and
when once ignited it is practically i'm
possible to extinguish the fire by any
ordinary meansaJF
Summarizing. we can state that this
material is not only hazardous from
the standpoint of storage, and use. but
IS also dangerous to persons handling
cans of it since it was only by good for
tune that no personal injury was suf-
fered by us in opening the sample can
which you sent to u.s.
| would, therefore. request that all
merchants examine their stock and if
any VI the nlSTeuIeHtS named ABOVE are
found in their stock. l would recon-
mend that they be eliminated by rea-
son of the fire hazard
The report on Rough on Rats shows
that this produce is not PHOSPHORUS
preparation, its poisonous properties be
ing due to the presence of arsenic acid.
preparation, its poisonous properties be
semitic. 1t is, of course, dangerous from
the standpoint of its toxical properties.
as would be expected in preparations
of this kind, but its fire hazard is prac-
tically negligible.
JOSEPH G.. BROWN,
State Fire Marshal