Lead Poisoning in Venison

[triggerpress]

Came across this today. It appears we should all be dead by now if we eat venison.

Lead poisoning in condors, venison prompts Idaho conference
5/9/2008, 11:08 p.m. ET
By JOHN MILLER
The Associated Press


BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The potential risk of lead poisoning from high-velocity bullets, whether to carrion-eating condors in the Grand Canyon or to food bank patrons in the Midwest, is the subject of a scientific conference next week.

The issue has been heightened since North Dakota and Minnesota officials instructed food bank operators to clear their shelves of venison donated by hunters this year.

The move raised complaints from Safari Club International of Somerset, N.J., whose members gave about 316,000 pounds of venison to the needy last year under the group's Sportsmen Against Hunger program, and Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry of Williamsport, Md., which donates more than 282,000 pounds of venison in 27 states annually.

The four-day gathering that begins Monday at Boise State University includes more than 50 presentations on issues ranging from lead poisoning among subsistence hunting Inuits in Alaska and Russia, lead levels in ravens in southern Yellowstone National Park, lead found in swans in Western Washington state and the politics of nontoxic ammunition.

"You're collecting a huge weight of evidence to infer or perhaps even prove there's a serious health risk, certainly to wildlife, but perhaps even to humans," said Rick Watson, vice president of The Peregrine Fund in Boise, a raptor recovery center that is sponsoring the conference.

"That should promote if not actual remediation of the problem, then further research on where there are gaps in that knowledge," Watson said Friday.

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and death.

Watson said his group realized there might be a connection between lead poisoning, bullets, venison and humans after 1996, the year it began reintroducing rare California condors in northern Arizona. As many as 60 now soar over the Grand Canyon and southern Utah, but researchers and the Arizona Game and Fish Department found the scavengers were ailing from lead poisoning after eating hunter-killed deer and leftover gut piles.

In 2006, five condors died of lead poisoning and 90 percent of the rest had signs of exposure.

To learn more, Peregrine Fund researchers killed two deer with high-velocity lead ammunition and found that the bullets fragmented on impact, leaving the animals' flesh riddled with hundreds of microscopic lead particles.

"In the process of doing that study, we didn't want to waste the deer meat we had shot, so we had it processed," Watson said. "We thought, 'For interest's sake, let's take a look at some of these package to see if there was any lead' — and there was."

Skeptical, Dr. William Cornatzer of Bismarck, N.D., a physician, hunter and Peregrine Fund board member, used a CT scan to examine about 100 packets of venison from local food giveaway programs and found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments.

"There isn't much to argue," Cornatzer said. "It shows there is this toxic metal in our ground venison that we hunters have been eating for the last 50 years."

While no cases of lead poisoning from venison had been reported, his research helped lead to the warning to food banks in North Dakota in March. Days later, Minnesota followed suit after separate tests in that state.

Safari Club officials have contend there is no scientific basis for abandoning thousands of pounds of meat that otherwise would go to poor families at a time of rapidly escalating food costs.

Gene Rurka, chairman of the group's humanitarian efforts, said dumping venison on the basis of a few anecdotal studies was premature.

"I just can't imagine there's that kind of lead intrusion in the meat," Rurka said. "If it's a health issue, certainly, it's a concern, but to go out and say there's one guy who took a sampling of meat, and to use that across the entire program, it is totally unfair."

Watson said such skepticism is a key reason for the conference.

Among other reports, his group plans to release preliminary findings of a continuing study of packaged venison from 30 deer killed by researchers with high-velocity ammo and processed by 30 butchers in Wyoming. Watson, one of the authors, said the findings so far mirror the conclusions in North Dakota and Minnesota.

"We've effectively demonstrated that lead does get into venison, both hamburger and steaks," he said. "It's at levels sufficiently high enough to be a concern to people who get those packets. We don't know what risk, but we know they are at some risk."

___

AP writer James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

[Grizzly Adams]

We could make up the shortfall, with some Swan Hills moose.
Grizz

[mulecrazy]

Well i guess if you say that your kill died from lead poisoning you are not far off. I don't know about everyone else or what the researchers did, but I cut out any meat that has any damage due to the shot. It is all bled into and gross anyways. Watch out fellas, i remember a few years ago when lead shot for migratory birds was banned. Could the same be true for Big game in the future???? I wonder how long the bullet will have to be to make it 180 grains in weight?

[elnino54]

Its already banned in California............saw it in a recent magazine article.

[M70]

Hmmm. Another reason to shoot TSX's.

[John Spartan]

Not sure this is that big of an issue that it is made out to be. When I think back to my younger years when lead shot was still legal for waterfowl, I lost count of how many times I spat out lead shot while eating duck and goose. A recent lead level check showed my lead level to be well within normal limits.

And we still can use lead shot on grouse, partridge and pheasant. I eat plenty of those birds when "in season".

[Buck Krazy]

Sounds like people have too much time on their hands!!!!!!!!!!

[CNP]

I use steel to kill deer. Stainless....................4 blade muzzy's. I recall using lead bell sinkers as a soother when I was a baby

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and death.

Now I have an excuse

[MK2750]

When I was a kid I was always shooting a pellet gun; usually carried a dozen or so in my mouth incase i had to reload quickly. After all these years...........
Sorry forgot what my point was.

[fluxcore]

yea I always had a cheek full of lead pellets when I was shooting. also a bunch of split shots while fishing ive swallowed a few every time I landed a fish. gotta get off the computer my double vision with dizzy spells are back

[JohninAB]

Whew, glad to see I wan't the only one who carried pellets in their mouth when young and foolish!

[bruceba]

.

[fluxcore]

Originally Posted by bruceba

And some of us aren't that young any more. I think all the pellets I swallowed as a kid are whats helped keep me grounded.

Thats funny

[archdlx]

I am in the same boat. Have a cheek full of pellets, hiding in the bush, waiting for magpies, and eventually, one cousin or another, would come and scare the crap outta me! Can you say..GULP!
Every day, of every summer, from '68 to '72, I had a mouthfull of pellets. After that, W.W. or CCI .22 shells for my Cooey single shot!
I don't think it bothered me.....at least they didn't tell me that in Ponoka!!

Archdlx
p.s. Mrs. Archdlx had to type this for him, as he went into a trance, but I am not sure if it was the lead, or the residue of the late '70's, early '80's!

[Big Buff]

This is interesting!!!

Let’s see, 60% of the meat packs have been contaminated by lead that means that 60% of the dear or bird that has been shot contains lead fragments. In all my years of hunting I have never seen a bullet breaking up so much that there are fragments in 60% of the animal, on the other hand, it might be true for a bird that have been shot with a shotgun.

We have all sucked on pellets for our pellet guns, still do, we have slept in baby cots painted with lead paint, and played with lead soldiers when we were kids. Looks like we have been exposed quite a bit and might expect to drop of any time now……..

Just a few facts re lead, the Ld 50 for lead is smaller than 500mg/kg, so lets say it is 500mg/kg, weighing 70kg, and if my sums are correct, a 500grain bullet that you swallow should do the trick, yet I doubt it…..
Lead is not soluble in water; lead oxide is not soluble in water….interesting.

Just out of interest, the LD50 for salt is 3000mg/kg so, weighing 70 kg a dose of 210 gram of salt could see you off to the next life…..

I really do not know what all the fuss is about!!!

[Tundra Monkey]

Originally Posted by Big Buff

This is interesting!!!

Let’s see, 60% of the meat packs have been contaminated by lead that means that 60% of the dear or bird that has been shot contains lead fragments.

Apparently you've never seen me shoot

Total bunk man...either put out by anti's or the "Alberta Beef Coalition"

tm