A bill approved by the California Assembly this week would outlaw the use of a common type of rat poison, making it more difficult to control rodent populations around rental housing and other buildings. The California Apartment Association opposes the bill, AB 1788 by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, which would prohibit the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. Pest control companies use this tool to manage rodents around businesses, homes, apartments, and other places where people eat, sleep, play and live. Rodenticides protect Californians from the spread of diseases, such as hantavirus and typhus.