Recently, I read an article about a study that was done on the actual lead levels of families that regularly consumed game animals and found that the lead levels were the same or lower than in families that didn't consume wildlife. If I can find the article I will post more details of the study.
Agencies that participated in the meeting are following up the initial studies with larger, more focused investigations. In Minnesota, the DNR is conducting a study of sheep carcasses shot with high-powered bullets to determine the prevalence of lead particles away from the wound channel.
The study should help answer how far into adjacent tissue lead fragments travel, how much meat should be discarded during processing and whether some bullets hold together better than others, leaving behind fewer fragments in the carcass.
Last month in North Dakota, another team took blood samples from more than 700 people who routinely eat venison in order to "assess the risk of lead toxicity among people who consume wild game." If results, which are expected prior to this fall's hunting season, indicate that people who eat lots of deer meat also have high levels of lead in their blood, then you can expect the discussion to move from suspended interest to active crisis management.
"We've been here before, back in 1991 when we switched from lead to non-toxic shot for waterfowl," says one ammunition maker who didn't want to be identified. "We can do it again, but we need to have the scientific evidence that it's a problem first. If we get it, then we'll do what's best for the resource and for the public. It will be rough for awhile, but everyone adjusts."
But others smell an agenda in the works. They claim that the basis for the initial investigation, by Dr. William Cornatzer, is suspect. Because Cornatzer is on the board of directors of the Peregrine Fund, a group that has helped research and fund return of the California condor – including advocating for the prohibition of lead bullets in condor range – they suspect a broad anti-hunting agenda is motivating the talk of limiting or banning certain types of bullets.
"This boils down to an anti-hunting initiative," says Jess Brooks at Barnes Bullets, one of the leading manufacturers of non-toxic bullets. "It's as simple as that. We're not looking at this as a bullet-sales tool at all. We're looking at it as an issue to divide hunters and thin our ranks."