Study: Lead in blood linked to wild game

A North Dakota study finds that those consuming animals killed with lead bullets face potentially higher health risks.
By DOUG SMITH, Star Tribune
November 5, 2008

People who eat wild game killed with lead bullets tend to have higher levels of lead in their blood than people who don't, according to a first-of-its-kind study of 738 North Dakotans.

"People who ate a lot of wild game tended to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or none," Dr. Stephen Pickard, epidemiologist for the North Dakota Department of Health, said Wednesday.

The study also showed that the more recent the consumption of wild game killed with lead bullets, the higher the level of lead in the blood.

The blood lead levels of those tested were considered low, but even low levels can have adverse health effects, especially for children and pregnant women.

Officials recommended that pregnant women and children under 6 not eat any venison from deer killed with lead bullets -- the same recommendation made last month by the Minnesota Health Department.

"Children under 6 are particularly vulnerable because their brains are still developing," Pickard said. "It causes permanent brain damage even in very small quantities. There is no safe exposure level for small children. We see children with permanent lower intelligence and changes in behavior."

Lead can increase the risk that a pregnant woman could lose her baby or deliver it prematurely, Pickard said. In adults, lead can cause high blood pressure, hearing loss and infertility, though usually with higher lead levels.

The study, done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the North Dakota Department of Health, appears to add to the evidence that using lead bullets can pose potential health problems for hunters and their families. A Minnesota study last summer showed lead bullets fired from high-powered rifles scatter lead fragments -- many too small to see or feel -- up to 18 inches from the wound.

The North Dakota blood samples were taken in May and June, and the study results were released just days before deer seasons open in North Dakota and Minnesota. Some 500,000 people are expected to hunt deer in Minnesota this fall. The study was conducted after lead particles were found in venison donated to food shelves last spring. Venison in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin also was found to contain lead. North Dakota is limiting venison donations this year to deer shot by archers.

The study was limited in scope. It didn't determine if careful butchering practices would reduce lead levels and didn't examine whether people were having adverse health effects from the lead.

The lead levels ranged from virtually none to 9.82 micrograms per deciliter. Health officials consider 10 micrograms per deciliter in a child to be the level when "intervention" should occur. That "intervention" level for an adult is 25 micrograms per deciliter.

"But any level of lead in children below age 6 is of concern," said John Stine of the Minnesota Department of Health.

After ingesting lead, a person will slowly get rid of it. Pickard noted the blood samples were taken last spring, months after the North Dakota hunting season. Had they been taken during or shortly after the hunting season, he suspects the blood levels would have been higher.

North Dakota also recommended that older children and other adults should take steps to minimize their potential exposure to lead.

"There is reason to be concerned,'' Pickard said. "And if you're concerned, there is one sure way to avoid having lead contamination: Use non-lead bullets."
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Link to the North Dakota Department of Health site with links to the CDC Blood Lead Level Study and related information.

Lead in Venison

And a very good article September North Dakota Outdoors Article,

On Lead In Venison- An Evolving Perspective

Took a person to the Dr. yesterday. There in his office was an Oct08 Outdoor Life. Hadn't wasted anytime flipping through one in many years. Enjoyed Pat McManus funny story at the aft end of the magazine.

Flipped through it and what should I find but an article debunking the Cornasser biased(got an agenda) . As it said in the article(or words to the effect) thousands of people have been tested and not a single case of Lead Poisioning can be linked to Game Meat Killed by Hunters.

Just that simple.

Now the obammmmmerites will be in the full mode, just as they were with clinton/algore, so be skeptical of things that appear to be against common sense.

total bullshit.

Lets face it the CDC is biased anyhow and not in the shooter/hunter favor. WE just might end up with a total lead bullet ban.

Rad

Bullshit.

This is some bureaucratic scientist's attempt at justifying his/her salary while at the same time publishing some "feel good" anti-hunting/anti-gun nonesense. I've worked with lead most of my adult life and have eaten lots of squirrels, fowl, and deer taken with lead bullets - and my lead levels are well within the normal range. I don't know what the author of this article was smoking when the results were interpreted, but I think maybe its time to clean out the bong.

The findings of this report are complete and total bullshit.

Read the articles and had lots of questions about them .Didn't sound like real science .My instinct tells me AGENDA ! When the report was released just before hunting season - how convenient .

It's nothing but ignorance in action, and even the obvious agenda is thinly-veiled.

Below is a press release from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) which, I think, is quite contrary to the findings in the above article.

Link:

NSSF Press Release

Abstract of findings:

Traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people.

The average lead level of hunters tested was lower than that of the average American.
Lead levels of children under 6 in the study were less than half the national average.

The study only showed an insignificant 0.3 micrograms per deciliter difference between participants who ate wild game harvested with traditional ammunition and non-hunters in the non-random control group.

=========================================
Results of CDC Blood Lead Levels in Hunters Study

Nov. 6, 2008

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- issued the following statement in response to study results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released by the North Dakota Department of Health, showing no evidence that lead or "traditional" ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume game harvested meat.

The CDC report on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people and that the call to ban lead ammunition was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups.

In looking at the study results, the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. In other words, if you were to randomly pick someone on the street, chances are they would have a higher blood lead level than the hunters in this study.

Also of note, the lead levels of children under 6 in the study had a mean of just 0.88, less than half the national average. Children over 6 had even lower lead levels. The CDC's level of concern for lead in children is 10.

A media advisory released by the North Dakota Department of Health cited the highest lead level reading of an adult study participant as still being lower than the CDC lead level threshold of concern for a child, and significantly lower than the CDC accepted threshold of concern for an adult. Furthermore, during a tele-press conference hosted by the ND Department of Health, officials stated they could not verify whether this adult even consumed game harvested with traditional ammunition. Correspondingly, the study only showed an insignificant 0.3 micrograms per deciliter difference between participants who ate wild game harvested with traditional ammunition and non-hunters in the non-random control group.

Also demonstrating their understanding that game harvested with traditional ammunition is safe to consume, the ND Department of Health, following the release of the CDC study results, encouraged hunters to continue donating venison to local food banks as long as processing guidelines were adhered to.

NSSF was critical of the ND Department of Health when earlier this year the Department overreacted to a non-peer reviewed study by a dermatologist who claimed to have collected packages of venison from food banks that contained lead fragments. North Dakota health officials did not conduct their own study, but merely accepted the lead-contaminated meat samples from the dermatologist. The ND Department of Health then ordered all food banks to discard their venison. Serious questions were raised in a subsequent investigative journalism piece published this summer about the scientific validity of the testing of venison samples from the ND food pantries, including concerns regarding the non-random selection of the samples.

It has since come to light that the dermatologist's efforts were not the independent actions of a concerned hunter, as he claimed. It was an orchestrated strategy by the Peregrine Fund -- an organization dedicated to eliminating the use of lead ammunition for hunting. The dermatologist serves on the Fund's Board of Directors.

For more than a century, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely consumed game harvested using traditional hunting ammunition, and despite there being no scientific evidence that consuming the game is endangering the health of individuals, special interest groups like the Peregrine Fund and anti-hunting groups are continuing to press state legislatures around the country to support a ban on this common, safe and effective ammunition.

These politically driven groups understand that while an outright ban on hunting would be nearly impossible to achieve, dismantling the culture of hunting one step at a time is a realistic goal. Banning lead ammunition is the first step of this larger political mission. We can only hope that with the conclusive CDC results concerning the safety of traditional ammunition, legislatures across the country will listen to science and not anti-hunting radicals.

The notion by some, that any amount of lead is a "concern," is scientifically unfounded rhetoric that runs contrary to nationwide, long-standing standards of evaluation. The NSSF is pleased that hunters and others can now comfortably continue consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition that has been properly field dressed and butchered, yet we remain unsettled that for so many months good and safe food was taken out of the mouths of the hungry as nothing more than a political gambit by special interest groups.

By the way, I thought this was the most shocking part regarding the DERMATOLOGIST (my colleagues and I barely consider them a real doctor anyway! Hahaha Just kidding...sorta) who submitted donated meat samples from a food shelter for study:

"It has since come to light that the dermatologist's efforts were not the independent actions of a concerned hunter, as he claimed. It was an orchestrated strategy by the Peregrine Fund -- an organization dedicated to eliminating the use of lead ammunition for hunting. The dermatologist serves on the Fund's Board of Directors. "

That is down right embarrassing for someone in the medical profession to do such a thing.

A line in the Hippocratic Oath reads:

"But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts."

His actions are far form preserving the purity of anything, including the tainted samples he submitted.

Awful!

Its all adjenda driven. Look they want to ban lead bullets, hell they really want to ban guns hunting, and what ever else they can. We are going to see more and more of this, and the more and more we give in, like ok we will just shoot copper bullets the more and more they are going to take. It don't matter much, be it lead bullets or some other bunch telling you do what we say or we will hurt you!