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Collateral Damage in the War on RatsNEW YORK — In the urban warfare against rats, children become casualties, poisoned in greater numbers every year by the pastel pellets scattered like candy around playgrounds, public housing and schools to keep rodents at bay.

The children are victims of the politics of poison control, environmental activists said Saturday, because federal regulators revoked safety measures designed to childproof the millions of pounds of rat poisons applied nationally every year.