A highly controlled insecticide has been implicated in 24 cases of poisoning in New York, city officials said Friday.
Aldicarb, a potent chemical sold in the United States under the brand name Temik, is used to keep insects away from citrus, peanut and cotton crops.It is also the active ingredient in Tres Pasitos, a mouse and rodent poison sold illegally in New York stores in unlabelled containers, said John Gadd, a spokesperson for the city's health department.
In the past two years, two dozen people have been poisoned after using Tres Pasitos in their homes, said Gadd. Twenty-one of those were hospitalized.