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What do you think of this story about lead ammunition?
I have to beg to differ from Sebastian in his argument in favor of lead ammunition.
humans have been consuming animals killed by lead shot and lead bullets (musket bullets have a lot more lead in them, in fact) for centuries. Why is it only now that it’s a problem?
It is not that Now it is a problem.
It is that although lead poisoning has been known about for thousands of years, in recent years the extent of the damage is becoming better known, and what was once considered safe amounts of lead in in the blood would now be considered hazardous amounts.
It is true that most of todays lead poisoning cases are indutry related - from paint chips and so on - but on the other hand, the use of lead has droped dramaticly in the last years.
Most of the paint is lead free, a lot of eating utensils used to be out of lead or lead alloys - and this allowed for a larger amount of lead to accumulate in the blood.
So while I can see that it is true that one bullet in a deer wont give one lead poisoning, I can also see the need to eliminate lead as much as possible, since the damage is done through accumulation of lead in the blood.What are your thoughts on the mater?
I have simply seen no evidence that solid lead shot causes lead poisoning. There is correlation, but no evidence of causation. And the “studies” that have supposedly demonstrated correlation lead to more questions than answers. For example, in Sebastian’s post, he asks “how many loons were found with lead fishing tackle in their gizzards that DIDN’T die of lead poisoning?
Also unanswered is the question of how prevalent a problem it is. All of the lead poisoned loons had fishing tackle in their gizzards, but how many was that? What percentage of dead loons died of lead poisoning? 1%? 10%? 50%? The fact that the question remains unanswered leads to the obvious conclusion that they are overstating the problem.
Studies of hunters determined that blood lead levels in people who consumed meat that had been killed with lead projectiles was not elevated. In fact, the study found lead levels in hunters to be slightly LOWER on average than blood lead levels of those tested who did not eat such “tainted” meat.
In other words, you can find a study to support virtually any position. I basically have no faith in “science” any more. Scientists are no better than pollsters or statisticians who purposely conduct “studies” designed to reach a predetermined result in support of some agenda or another.
My generation grew up in the era of lead paint and lead toys with no ill effects. The only people I’ve ever known who ended up with some sort of lead poisoning did so via industrial exposure.
This is simply a non-issue promulgated by people with an agenda.
IMHO
i honestly think its crap they want to ban lead ammunition do you know what that is gonna cause a chain reaction thats what. first off they get rid of lead based ammo allright so that leaves copper ammo and steel ammo well full steel ammo is pretty much considered armor piercing ammo so they get rid of that then they go to full copper bullets. then well first of all you know how much full copper bullets is gonna cost to make no one will buy it thus. losing hunters and do you know what losing hunters will do i will tell you did you know the reason all of our nations forest’s arent knocked down because hunters stood up for the forest so they can have a place for nature hunting camping teaching kids about the outdoors so without hunters not to many people are gonna stand up for the forest then it will be torn downthus harming the earh and thats pretty much gonna be the horrible chain reaction so think about that that could and might happen and did you know they want to ban us hunters from carrying any firearm into the forest that means no hunting no self protection incase of wild animals so what i think we can do to try to solve this is write a letter to the white house to barrack anti-gun obama and a letter to the department of fish and game disscusing this conversation and we need more people to join the NRA and fight for our second amendment obama allready is trying to ban guns and joe biden is the guy whowrote the assault rifle ban and every one in the white house is pretty much anti gun so we need to protect our right join the NRA and write letters tell everyone you know
Sailorcurt - I agree with you about the ambivalence of scientific studies. For a study to be viable it needs to be supported by many other studies who’s results will match the original studies results.
It is also true that a lead shot only causes poisoning when lodged in a joint, and then the slow bleeding of the lead into the blood stream does cause poisoning.
where you might see a lead problem is shooting in a closed in area with little or no ventilation. the heavey accumilation of smoke/lead in the still area is inhaled. over a period of time it will lead to lead poison. that could be years or months depending on exposure. I know of a family that produced cast lead bullets in a small factory. after a few years all the family workers died of lean poisoning…..but that is exposure 8 hours a day, 5 ot 6 days a week. Very heavy dosage of lead.