Lead Contamination of Game

[Gun Dog]

A friend sent me a Powerpoint presentation (BCWF April 26, 2013) about how much lead hunters and scavengers ingest because lead bullets fragment and leave tiny particles throughout the meat. A similar report (in PDF format) by the same author (Darroch Whitaker) is available at Lead Bullets in Canadian National Parks (http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2969364/1146970210/name/Lead+bullets+in+Canadian+National+Parks_Whitaker_J an+17+2013.pdf). Ignore the National Parks slant (someone has to fund the research) and go to the x-rays of fragments scattered throughout a carcass.

It makes a good case for using solid copper bullets and avoiding lead entirely.

Discuss.

[redneckjoe]

Europe has already banned the use of lead ammunition in hunting. Some of the hunting organizations in the States are trying to push for something similar, but the Second Amendment crowd are fighting back.

[longstonec]

I havent read it and haven't gone crazy yet...

[longstonec]

Next they are going to say playing with balls of mercury isn't safe!

[Surrey Boy]

Next they are going to say playing with balls of mercury isn't safe!

My grandpa used to open old switches and let us play with it on the table. Way better than silly putty!

[Surrey Boy]

DDT hasn't killed me either, but it sure killed the bedbugs.

[sneg]

i do not believe it. presentation is highly political.Rome was seating on lead water supply lines for 1000 s of years and no really visible side effects. Some scavengers injest lead fragments ? Just think for second how many animal carcasses out there left by lead shooting hunters and how much food those scavengers need. I do not buy European statistic ,it just not true. But I believe lead inhalation is not good for anyone.

[hunter1947]

I don't worry about lead fragments ,,one of my least worries ,,now if I had a dreaded disease like cancer then I would be worried..

[Timbow]

Why do you think they banned lead for waterfowl?

[quadrakid]

birds eat small gravel for their crops,to digest food.lead shot is like small gravel.mammals do not eat gravel .

[finngun]

Europe has already banned the use of lead ammunition in hunting. Some of the hunting organizations in the States are trying to push for something similar, but the Second Amendment crowd are fighting back.

not so ...maybe some countries,,but not all over europe:mrgreen:

[Jagermeister]

Lead keeps your pencil sharp.

[rides bike to work]

I have gone unleaded.i want my meat for my family to be as pure as possible and since I have a choice I pick the unleaded. That being said I have being eating wild game shot with lead my whole life and also helped my dad pour pencil lead in the garage for years. And haven't seen any side effects potatoes soya sauce ketchup rice oranges apples
Wash the deck mow the lawn take the boat off the truck organize the garage

[Fred1]

Maybe the whole point of going "unleaded" is not to protect ourselves - we really cant do that, we will kill ourselves one way or another. Usually through stupidity or stubborness :) But I think there is some merrit regarding the protectioin of certain bird species. The Americans have been noticing the lead issuses in their rapotors for years. I have talked with a bio or two here in BC regarding this too. Again, funding for research on dying raptors is pretty hard to come by. I guess my point is, if lead poisoning was showing up in our children we would be all over finding out why and changing it. And doing it with a loud voice. We wouldnt stand around in disbelief. Boom ! Change it! We made the change to lead free "bird shot" pretty easily. The clues are there for us. Our environment is showing them to us every day. So maybe for the greater good of the raptors, going to lead free bullets is a good idea? I have seen the x ray pics before and I will admit I really didnt feel good about seeing the lead throughout the meat. I had planned on switching to copper bullets this fall just for this reason - just site better with me. Kind of like working in a nuclear power plant... sure its safe, but its only safe under certain conditions. On that note, anyone ever lose pencil lead in the Chilliwack river? :D

[jhausner]

Pencil "lead" is actually graphite not lead. Hasn't been lead since the 1800s though they did use lead paint around the graphite in some pencils until about the 50s.

as for lead bullets how easy is it to find non lead? I can say I have actually never looked when it comes to my rifle ammo and what is the cost difference?

[Farmer]

Pencil "lead" is actually graphite not lead. Hasn't been lead since the 1800s though they did use lead paint around the graphite in some pencils until about the 50s.

as for lead bullets how easy is it to find non lead? I can say I have actually never looked when it comes to my rifle ammo and what is the cost difference?
The Pencil lead" being referred to is lead. It is lead used for fishing weight. It comes in a 1 pound coil. It is about 1/4 inch in diameter and has a hollow centre to run fishing line through.

[tbocking]

Anyone ever think about how many tons of lead get deposited in the Fraser every sockeye season?

[604redneck]

There is a thin called copper poisoning as well also probably some kind of poisoning from the polymer tip

[Gun Dog]

as for lead bullets how easy is it to find non lead? I can say I have actually never looked when it comes to my rifle ammo and what is the cost difference?Many of the "high performance" bullets -- like the Barnes Triple Shock -- are lead free.

Turns out there's a web site dedicated to non-lead bullets: www.huntingwithnonlead.org (http://www.huntingwithnonlead.org)

[redneckjoe]

not so ...maybe some countries,,but not all over europe:mrgreen:

Ah, I was misinformed by a wildlife officer then. :)

My mistake. I should had done research on my own.

[Legi0n]

Guys, metallic lead is not toxic. Lead compounds are (paint, leaded gasoline, pesticides, etc).
Many studies blame "hunting" lead while failing to consider other lead sources.
Check similar topics on canadiangunnutz.com

[Davey Crockett]

] Ingestion of metallic lead, such as small lead fishing lures, increases blood lead levels and can be fatal.[54][55][56][57] Ingestion of lead-contaminated food is also a threat

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning

[finngun]

Ah, I was misinformed by a wildlife officer then. :)

My mistake. I should had done research on my own. .....yes same as here... duck-geese etc. no lead....rifle still okay,most countries:-Df-g

[Legi0n]

] Ingestion of metallic lead, such as small lead fishing lures, increases blood lead levels and can be fatal.[54][55][56][57] Ingestion of lead-contaminated food is also a threat

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning

That's exactly what I meant when I said some studies fail to consider other sources of lead contamination.
The wiki article contains some of the writer's unproven beliefs like the one you quoted.
Let's have a look at the sources quoted:

54. Images in clinical medicine. Buckshot ingestion.

We know that happens. Does not state it causes poisoning. There's this case of a 80years old Inuit woman (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm041154) with a gut full of lead shot. Alive and well. At 80. In an extremely harsh environment.

55. Seven patients with one or two lead shots retained in the appendix were identified by radiography. For each case, two sex- and age-matched control patients without lead shot in the appendix were found. None of the 7 patients with lead shot in the appendix had blood lead levels (median 0.55 mumol/l) approaching the toxic levels, but they averaged almost twice the levels of the controls (median 0.29 mumol/l). Thus, lead shots may add to individual lead exposures, and blood lead analysis should be performed, at least when more than a few lead shots are present.

the source does not state the gut lead causes the elevated levels (because no respectable scientist would make such an affirmation without factoring in other blood lead sources). I'll come back to this later.

56. Appendicectomy in an unusual case of lead poisoning.

Again, there was the case of elevated blood lead levels and presence of lead in the apendix. No other sources considered.

57. Lead-based paint remains the most common source of lead exposure for children aged <6 years. However, one report determined that 34% of children aged <6 years with lead poisoning in Los Angeles County had been exposed to items containing lead that had been brought into the home. These items might include candy, folk and traditional medications, ceramic dinnerware, and metallic toys and trinkets. Exposures to some of these items can result in life-threatening BLLs of > or =100 microg/dL (elevated BLLs are > or =10 microg/dL for children and > or =25 microg/dL for adults). In 2004, a child in Oregon had a BLL of 123 microg/dL after ingesting a necklace with high lead content. The same year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled 150 million pieces of imported metallic toy jewelry sold in vending machines. Some lead-contaminated items intended for use by children are manufactured in countries with limited government regulation of lead in consumer products. With the decline in BLLs in U.S. children, widespread education of the dangers of lead paint, and systematic reduction of lead hazards in U.S. housing, acute ingestion of lead-containing items has become increasingly more common as a source of life-threatening BLLs.

This source focuses on the lead in the paint. Lead in paint is a lead compound rather than metallic lead.

A source of lead compounds (as opposed to metallic lead) that hunters (and shooters in general) are exposed to is the Lead Styphnate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_styphnate) widely used in non-corosive primers. It may be that this is the cause of high lead blood levels in lead-laced-game eating hunters.
From a scientific point of view it makes sense:


it gets released in close proximity of permeable mucous membranes (mouth, nose, eye)
it is slightly soluble in water
shooters get plenty of it at the range
it is collected by tumbler media (reloaders only)



Another source could be the chemical cleaning of lead in barrels.
Some people use hydrogen peroxyde and some acid (like vinegar) to force lead to turn into lead compounds that can be dissolved. If such a person is a hunter too and ingested a few pellets, the wrong conclusion will be drawn.