Hunters Beware Of Lead

Tiny lead fragments from lead ammo found in hunted game

 

Deer hunting season using standard firearms begins this Saturday in Pennsylvania. (Users of muzzleloaders had a week to themselves to hunt deer in October; flintlock firearm users get their turn at the end of December.)

According to Sam Totoni and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, the majority of hunters use lead ammunition. The result is unintended consequences that threaten the health of wildlife and humans:

Upon impact, a lead bullet can fragment into tiny microparticles, too small to see with the naked eye or sense when eating. A deer processor in Pennsylvania who requested anonymity shared his first-hand experience. “Seventy-five percent of the time when I find a bullet in the carcass, I only find the base. I know the lead is all in the meat somewhere,” he told EHN.

Scientists have used X-rays to visualize and count sometimes hundreds of minute lead particles in hunted meat, and have detected high concentrations of lead in hunted carcasses using chemical analysis.

 

Andy McGlashen explains why lead is a popular material in bullets:

Lead’s availability, density and malleability have made it a cost-effective bullet material for centuries. But lead bullets can lose half of their mass on impact, leaving hundreds of tiny fragments both in the meat hunters take home and the entrails they leave behind, which are a food source for many wild creatures.

 

We have covered the devastating harms inflicted on children who are exposed to lead many times previously on The PediaBlog. Totoni repeats the mantra:

There is no safe level of lead in the blood. Levels above 5 micrograms/deciliter (μg/dL) are considered elevated and have been associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and decreased IQ. However, developing brains exposed to even lower levels are at risk for attention-related behavioral problems, decreased cognitive performance, and increased incidence of problem behaviors.

Although neurotoxic effects of lead may be the most widely-known, low levels of lead in the blood have been associated with a range of serious health effects, including kidney diseaseand impacts to the cardiovascular system. The mechanisms behind the toxic effects of lead are not fully understood.

 

Based on a 2016 review of more than 500 articles on lead ammunition and its potential to cause harm in people (99% of the studies raised concerns about toxic impacts on people and the environment), a scientific consensus has emerged that urges hunters to find alternative ammo that doesn’t contain lead. Unfortunately, hunters may still be unaware there is a problem:

As lead ammunition use continues to be widespread among U.S. hunters, experts say it is crucial that health officials get a message out to hunting communities, including useful advice for hunters who will continue to use lead. Hunters want to know what the risks are and what options they have to keep their families safe.

This is also an issue of environmental reproductive justice for girls and women who, with each meal of contaminated meat, add to the burden of lead in their bones that can affect the outcomes of their future pregnancies.

Dr. Ned Ketyer, Washington County, Pennsylvania-based pediatrician, told EHN, “We’re learning more every day about the significant adverse health impacts of lead on human health, especially children’s health.

“As we continue putting more lead into the environment, and continue to expose ourselves and our children to lead, at some point it makes sense to say, ‘Wait a minute, what are we doing?'”

 

A recent report from Totoni and other public health experts around the country calls for new food safety guidelines to protect hunters, their families, and recipients of donated meat:

Each year in the United States, food banks receive more than one million kilograms of donated hunted game meat. The National Rifle Association’s (NRA’s) Hunters for the Hungry initiative has established programs in more than 40 states for hunters to take their harvested game animal to a meat-processing facility and indicate intent to donate the resulting processed and packaged meat to a local food bank. Most donated game meat is ground deer meat (venison); other donated game includes wild hog and goose.

Even though the presence of ammunition-derived metallic lead fragments in donated firearms-hunted meat has been recognized for more than a decade, the vast majority of donated hunted meat is not inspected to discard meat containing lead fragments. An underlying lack of food safety standards for adulterated donated food increases risks to low-income recipients, who are already disproportionately affected by elevated blood lead levels (BLLs). Primary prevention is needed for this overlooked source of lead exposure.

 

Learn more about preventing lead poisoning in children on The PediaBlog here.

 

(Google Images)

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/11/23/hunters-beware-of-lead/