Study will shed light on lead issue
TERRY DWELLE, Bismarck, N.D.,
The Jamestown Sun
May 14, 2008

Beginning May 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North Dakota Department of Health will conduct a study measuring the risk, if any, of consuming wild game harvested with lead bullets. I appreciate this opportunity to explain the reasons for the study and what we hope to learn as a result.

Earlier this year, a local doctor contacted the Department of Health about the discovery of metal fragments in ground venison donated for food pantries across the state. Laboratory testing identified the metal as lead. Because of the seriousness of lead poisoning, especially for children and pregnant women, the departments of Health, Agriculture, and Game and Fish advised food pantries across the state not to distribute or use the donated ground venison. The agencies also suggested that anyone who had concerns about how their venison was cleaned and processed should not serve it to children and may decide whether to eat it themselves. A few weeks later, Minnesota issued a similar advisory based on testing conducted in that state.

Basically, the steps that were taken are similar to precautions taken when any food product is found to be contaminated. According to the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, if these lead fragments had been found in beef, the meat would have been recalled.

The particles of lead discovered in the ground venison were not distributed evenly throughout the meat. In addition, many of the lead particles were so small that a person biting into the meat wouldn’t notice the metal. However, even microscopic amounts of lead can cause health problems. That’s why our most prudent option was to advise disposal of the meat.

Although there is no safe level of lead in blood, the risks are greater for young children and pregnant women. In young children, lead in the blood can cause lower IQs, learning disabilities, stunted growth, kidney damage and even death. In pregnant women, high lead exposure can cause low birth-weight babies, miscarriage and stillbirth. In adults, lead exposure can cause high blood pressure, hearing loss and infertility. In general, children are at higher risk because they absorb more lead than adults do and their developing brain is easily damaged by the lead.

Most of the time, however, the effects are subtle and can’t be easily recognized, and most people with elevated levels of lead in their blood probably don’t realize it. Lower IQ, high blood pressure and hearing loss may be blamed on other factors without consideration of lead exposure as a contributing factor.

Scientific studies can tell us how much lead is absorbed from sources such as paint or lead dust. What is still unclear is how much of the type of lead discovered in the venison is absorbed by the human body.

As I mentioned earlier, the CDC and the Department of Health will conduct a study at several sites across North Dakota beginning May 16 that will attempt to determine whether eating wild game harvested with lead bullets results in increased blood lead levels. The study will test the blood lead levels of 680 people of all ages and will compare blood lead levels of people who eat venison with the lead levels of those who don’t. Analysis of the blood samples and the data collected will take several months; however, we anticipate that preliminary results will be available before the fall hunting season.

Because this study will be an important opportunity to help us understand any potential health effects of swallowing lead bullet fragments, I encourage both hunters and non-hunters alike to participate. Testing sites and schedules are available on the Department of Health Web site at www.ndhealth.gov or by calling 701-328-2372.

Lead exposure is a serious issue. We are hopeful that this study will help us learn if there are any risks for people who eat wild game killed with lead bullets. We are committed to keeping you, the public, informed about whatever we discover.

Idaho raptor group: Study confirms lead fragments in venison
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho —

An Idaho raptor group working to eliminate lead from ammunition released findings Tuesday it said shows that ground venison from 80 percent of deer killed with high-velocity lead bullets contains metal fragments.

The Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, and researchers from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., say it is further evidence people who eat meat from game animals shot with lead bullets risk exposure to the toxic metal.

Separately, the North Dakota Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are planning a study on nearly 700 people who eat meat from wild game harvested with lead bullets, to determine health risks, if any.

The suggestion that lead bullets could make venison unsafe for humans has prompted outrage from pro-hunting groups such as Safari Club International, of Somerset, N.J., and the Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry group, after North Dakota and Minnesota in March and April instructed food banks there to pull hunter-donated venison from their shelves.

"This is one more piece of evidence that points to lead bullets as a source of contamination in our environment," Rick Watson, vice president of The Peregrine Fund, said in a statement ahead of a presentation of the study, which focused on 30 white-tailed deer killed by standard, lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets fired from a high-powered rifle.

The Peregrine Fund organized the four-day conference at Boise State University to bolster its stand against lead ammunition, with more than 50 scientific presentations on lead poisoning in wildlife and humans, including research on Inuits in Alaska and Russia who practice subsistence hunting.

The study released Tuesday comes after a Peregrine Fund board member, Dr. William Cornatzer, previously did CT scans of about 100 packets of venison that had been donated to food banks by hunters. He found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments.

Lawrence Keane, a National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman, said he hasn't seen the latest study.

But he said initial evidence supplied by Cornatzer, a dermatologist and professor at the University of North Dakota medical school, didn't justify a policy change or destruction of venison. Groups, including Safari Club, gave nearly 1 million pounds of venison in 2007 to food banks as part of their humanitarian efforts.

"The Peregrine Fund is an advocacy group and has an agenda," said Keane. "We have serious questions with the so-called science by the dermatologist. It's my understanding there's not a single reported case that the CDC is aware of, of anyone having elevated blood lead levels from eating game harvested with lead ammunition."

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and death. There is no safe level of lead in blood.

North Dakota Department of Health epidemiologists said the agency's planned study with the CDC will investigate whether there are any health risks for people, by attempting to determine whether eating wild game harvested with lead bullets results in increased blood lead levels.

"This study is an important opportunity to help us understand whether swallowing lead bullet fragments causes increased levels of lead in the blood," said state Health Officer Terry Dwelle. "We're hopeful that the study will give us information on which we can base any future recommendations."

In the study findings released Tuesday, authors, including Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine professor Russell Tucker, found widespread dispersal of metal fragments after taking X-rays of 30 deer shot in Wyoming and processed at 30 different butchers in that state.

Ground venison from 80 percent of the deer had metal fragments, and 92 percent of those were lead. In addition, metal fragments were found in some steaks, even though processors normally discard meat near the wound and along the bullet's path.

The Peregrine Fund got its start in 1970 with peregrine falcon recovery efforts and now works to restore California condors to northern Arizona's Grand Canyon region. Watson said the group began suspecting a connection between lead poisoning, bullets, venison and humans after researchers and the Arizona Game and Fish Department discovered about 90 percent of 60 condors that now soar over the Grand Canyon and southern Utah were ailing from lead poisoning after eating hunter-killed deer and leftover gut piles.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year signed a law banning lead bullets from condor habitat in his state, and Arizona wildlife managers have a voluntary program encouraging hunters to replace lead bullets with nontoxic copper ammunition. Condor deaths in Arizona dropped from five after the 2006 hunting season to none in 2007.

"We believe that copper bullets will become the ammunition of choice for hunters to benefit themselves, their families, and wildlife," Watson said.

You know that with the groups that are doing the study it will be biased to their favor. They will probably feed the test subjects some lead impregnated meat just to raise their lead levels. I used to work in a picture tube factory and they used a lead based ceramic the weld the tube parts together and you breathed the dust from the stuff but they tested you every so often.

Rad

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You know that with the groups that are doing the study it will be biased to their favor.

So the North Dakota Health Department and the CDC are the hooded specters behind the vast anti-lead ammo conspiracy then huh ?

Now that you've outed them the black van should be skidding into your driveway to haul you away to Gitmo.

This study seems to be based on a test of donated meat. My guess is less care than usual was used in the harvesting and butchering of this meat. This resulted in poorly shot deer and hasty butchering knowing that nobody would complain about their free meat.

This is why I try to harvest animals without wrecking meat, and I butcher what I can to enjoy lead free meat. Any meat that I take to the processor is without bullet holes.

I have never x-rayed my large game animals as they are to big. I will confess to x-raying goose jerky to see if any shot is in it.

I doubt Idaho will ban lead bullets. There are too many sportsmen and outfitters to allow legislation to even get introduced. Also our state government is slower than molasses.

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In young children, lead in the blood can cause lower IQs, learning disabilities

and in later life, they become Democrats.

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Originally posted by buffybr:

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In young children, lead in the blood can cause lower IQs, learning disabilities

and in later life, they become Democrats.

Now that is funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally posted by buffybr:

quote:

In young children, lead in the blood can cause lower IQs, learning disabilities

and in later life, they become Democrats.

Or KSTEPHENS...