The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the poisoning of a Vernal man who touched what he thought was a survey stake, only to get a blast of sodium cyanide to his face and chest, according to a report in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Dennis Slaugh has suffered multiple health problems as a result of his encounter four years ago with a cyanide-dispensing device known as an M-44, his wife Dorothy told the Tribune. Federal agencies use M-44s to kill predators.

An EPA investigator visited the Slaughs’ home last Monday looking into why federal agencies did not follow up on their original reports, Dorothy Slaugh said.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, pushed for the investigation into Slaugh’s situation at the request of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group based in Eugene, Ore. The congressman is sponsoring a bill in the House to ban all predator poisons on federally-managed lands.

According to Dorothy Slaugh, her husband and his brother were riding ATVs on Bureau of Land Management land in Cowboy Canyon near Bonanza in 2003 when her husband noticed what he thought was a survey stake. He reached to brush it off and it fell over. When he picked it up, it exploded, sending a cloud of orange granules into his nose, mouth and eyes, Slaugh told the Tribune.

M-44s are spring-loaded to shoot poison into a predator’s mouth. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Program is the only agency allowed to use the devices to poison coyotes and dogs to prevent livestock loss.

But when the Slaughs told the USDA and the BLM about their experience, the family said the agencies denied responsibility and eventually informed them the statute of limitations on their claims had run out.

“We were just asking for compensation. We’ve got medical bills. They just flat denied everything,” Dorothy Slaugh told the Tribune.

Last Monday, she said, the EPA investigator told her that time on the claim would run out in May.

Dennis Slaugh, 65, has extremely high blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and vomits almost daily, his wife said. He can no longer work as a heavy equipment operator for Uintah County because he is too weak.