This is Part I. See Part II and Part III.
I'm taking a small crash course in scientific spin this morning.
The science is the recent report from the CDC about lead bullets and wild game.
What's the report say? Who know? No one has bothered to actually link to it.
According to the National Shooting Sports Association, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, the study shows "no evidence that lead or 'traditional' ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume game harvested meat."
According to an Associated Press story headlined Government study warns of lead levels in wild game, however, the study may say something a little less comforting:
A government study says people who eat wild game shot with lead bullets tend to have higher lead levels in their blood.The preliminary study was released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North Dakota Health Department.
A state epidemiologist says the study found that the more recent the consumption, the higher the lead levels.
Health officials and the CDC collected blood samples this spring from more than 700 people in North Dakota. Most were adults who ate venison from deer killed with high-velocity ammunition.
State officials are recommending that pregnant women and children younger than 6 avoid meat from deer killed with lead bullets.
The notion that this study was promulgated by "anti's," by the way, is complete nonsense. As the video, at top, makes clear, this is a debate being initiated by hunters and it is is a public health issue and is being reported and treated as such. If lead bullets are a problem for hunters consuming game, the solution is not an end to hunting, but a simple change in ammunition formulation to copper or bonded bullets. We put a man on the moon; we can make cheap bullets out of something other than a highly toxic metal, eh? Have a little more faith in America!
From what I can tease from conflicting reports, lead bullets in game elevate the lead count in the blood of those who eat that meat, but that elevation may not be enough to cause a huge health concern in and of itself.
That said, lead in the human body is a bad thing in adults, and a very bad thing in children where it leads to stunted mental abilities. Is it worse that drinking whiskey, smoking cigarettes, or inhaling paint fumes? Probably not, but without a link to the CDC report, how will we ever know?
_ _ _ _ _
Update: Fact sheets and summary info on the report are linked off of here. More from the Minnesota DNR is available here. The North Dakota Dept. of Health says:
- Pregnant women and children younger than 6 should not eat any venison harvested with lead bullets.
- Older children and other adults should take steps to minimize their potential exposure to lead, and use their judgment about consuming game that was taken using lead-based ammunition.
- The most certain way of avoiding lead bullet fragments in wild game is to hunt with non-lead bullets.
- Hunters and processors should follow the processing recommendations developed by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.
- If food pantries choose to accept donated venison or other wild game, they should follow these recommendations:
** Shot with lead bullets – Accept only whole cuts rather than ground meat. (Studies indicate that whole cuts appear to contain fewer lead bullet fragments than ground venison.)
** Shot with bows – Accept whole cuts or ground meat.
The x-ray picture, above, shows a rapid-expansion soft-point bullet, showing where the bullet entered and exited, and the fact that small lead shards were strewn throughout the carcass, from shoulder to flank. See the Minnesota DNR video (slide show) for more information. Click on picture to enlarge.
.
11 comments:
You can't find it from the CDC because the study was initiated by the North Dakota Department of Health. They worked with the CDC lab, and there are only preliminary data available.
http://www.ndhealth.gov/lead/venison/
But seriously, if you can avoid extra lead exposure by not shooting deer with lead, and there are alternative ammunition types available, what's with the outcry? Other types are more expensive? I thought lead shot was already banned in water fowl hunting for similar reasons?
Apparently some work was done by Minnesota too. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/lead/index.html
Thanks R -- I looked for this and could not find. I will add some links to the original post.
P
This is a very old theme, I remember reading about it in an old cookbook as a kid.
Interesting to have some actual findings, though.
Could this explain what's wrong with Mooselini?
No lead in hawks' feet. :-)
But seriously, if you can avoid extra lead exposure by not shooting deer with lead, and there are alternative ammunition types available, what's with the outcry? Other types are more expensive? I thought lead shot was already banned in water fowl hunting for similar reasons?
There are some technical issues with lead-free ammunition, but they're small and have largely been fixed already.
The first generation of lead-free shotgun ammunition was made of steel. Since steel isn't as dense as lead the shot was much lighter and was more affected by the wind. Worse still, it lost speed faster and didn't kill as reliably as lead shot. A new generation of lead-free shot made of (IIRC) a bismuth-tungsten alloy, which is actually denser than lead, seems to fix this problem.
Lead-free rifle bullets can be made of the same alloy as the shot, but usually it's made of a bronze alloy instead. Solid bronze bullets have been used for hunting dangerous game for years since it doesn't deform and yields superior penetration. New designs, such as those from the Barnes company have a hollow point and composition that appears expand at least as well as traditional lead bullets. Cost is again, somewhat higher, but in rifle ammunition the case costs more than the bullet, so as a percentage it's not a big deal. Indeed, I'm fairly sure that ammunition costs is a small percentage of the cost of hunting.
The percussion primers in most ammunition also contains lead compounds. High-volume shooters, and those shooting indoors are at risk of breathing in the vapors. Lead-free primers are available, but are somewhat more expensive and less reliable, although not by much in either case.
I will have to read the report, but I'm frankly mystified that lead from the bullet could enter the meat in this manner. When dressing game I've certainly felt bullet fragments in the vicinity of the wound channel, but then I never eat meat from the margins of the wound channel. It's seriously nasty looking stuff, seeing as a supersonic projectile has just plowed into it. Perhaps not everyone discards that meat?
Alternatively, the lead fragments could be transfered from the area of the wound channel to the rest of the meat by subsequent handling. That probably makes the most sense.
The new lead-free bullets seem to be made of pure copper, and they have few fragments and are non-toxic. The slugs from black powder are also generally safe, as fragmentation has a LOT to do with the speed of the projectile. The lower speed of blackpowder mean there is little bullet break up.
I will post a picture of how far the bullets break up inside a carcass -- the lead goes all through the carcass, generally in pieces too small to detect while eating. It gives one pause ....
Patrick
Huh? I butcher a deer or two every year and any bullet, bullet path and fragments turn affected meat bright red and somewhat viscous. Anybody with an appetite cuts away all such meat - with a good margin. I'm not arguing pro or con lead bullets but doubt that fragments - unlike lead shot - are often ingested.
Donald McCaig
Apparently Don, the higher the speed of the bullet, the more it fragments, and the smaller the fragments and the farther those small fragments travel in the flesh. A high speed rapid -expansion soft nose (mostly what folks are firing these days) throws lots of very, very small pieces of lead (stuff you will swallow without noticing and which may be the size of a grain of sand) throughout the carcass. The lead amount may not be enough to matter to health (there are differing answers depending on the age of the consumer), but the x-rays show they are there.
Hit the link to the Minnesota DNR clip, and see what you think. It seemed pretty convincing footage to me. The x-ray picture at the bottom of the post is from that clip.
Lead, of course, is mostly a toxin that impacts children, where it reduces IQ in even small amounts. Once you hit adulthood, it has much less impact, especially at lower doses. That said, considering how many bullets most folks fire into a deer, the price of a copper round is probably worth it.
P.
Patrick,
If a bb sized fragment travels through meat, it will leave a visible track. In 40 years of hunting, butchering and eating deermeat I have yet to have one time that anyone eating my home prepared spit out a bit of lead. Might commercial processors miss something? Yep. Donald
Without a doubt commercial processors do miss lead -- one of the reason for Minnesota and Nebraska issuing new guidelines for commercial processors. In the east, where so much deer is shotgun (slugged), there is not much breakup into small pieces, bout out west where soft-nose bullets are more common, it's apparently an issue.
One thing a lot of folks don't know is that the deer meet you get back from the processor is almost certainly NOT the deer you shot. The reason for this is pretty simple: a lot of deer come into a processor every day during deer season. The deer is weighed, and what you get back is determined by formula. Putting a individual hunter's name, phone and address on each backstrap, ground round, sausage, etc. is more paperwork than a processing plant is set up for, so while you drop off a 6 pointer on Tuesday, the package of deer meat you get back a week later is probably made up of two or three deer shot by other hunmters a day or two earlier or later (or weeks earlier, even).
Patrick
Post a Comment