Diphenadione is a vitamin K antagonist that has anticoagulant effects and is used as a rodenticide against rats, mice, voles, ground squirrels and other rodents. The chemical compound is an anti-coagulant with active half-life longer than warfarin and other synthetic 1,3-indandione anticoagulants.[3][4]
It is toxic to mammals, in all forms; exposure and oral ingestion of the toxin may cause irregular heartbeat and major maladies associated with its impact on blood clotting, depending on dose.[5] As a "second-generation" anticoagulant, diphenadione is more toxic than the first generation compounds (e.g., warfarin).[6]: 436 For purposes of treating toxicity on exposure, diphenadione is grouped with other vitamin K antagonists (coumarins and indandiones); despite being directed at rodents and being judged as less hazardous to humans and domestic animals than other rodenticides in use[when?] (by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), indandione anticoagulants, nevertheless, "may cause human toxicity at a much lower dose than conventional 'first-generation anticoagulants'… and can bioaccumulate in the liver."[7]: 173
The first-generation anticoagulants, for example, are reasonably effective against pest rodents and are less toxic than second-generation anticoagulants… / Very small amounts of the extremely toxic rodenticides sodium fluoroacetate, fluoracetamide, strychnine, crimidine, yellow phosphorus, zinc phosphide and thallium sulfate can cause severe and even fatal poisoning. Cholecalciferol is also a highly toxic agent. The anticoagulants, indandiones and red squill, are less hazardous to humans and domestic animals. Some of the newer anticoagulant compounds, termed 'second-generation anticoagulants,' may cause human toxicity at a much lower dose than conventional 'first-generation anticoagulants'… and can bioaccumulate in the liver…
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) [p. 173, emphasis in source].{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) A safety handbook that explains how incidents of poisoning by various rodenticides are treated.