Research
on the effects and risks of lead exposure from spent
bullet fragments and shot is now available online. The
documents are proceedings from the conference, "Ingestion
of Lead from Spent Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife
and Humans," convened May 12-15, 2008, by The Peregrine
Fund, Boise State University, Tufts Center for Conservation
Medicine, and the US Geological Survey. The conference
for the first time brought together professionals in
wildlife and human health to share information on the
toxic effects of this source of lead contamination.
Conference attendees offered a relatively easy solution:
switch to non-lead bullets and shot. Such ammunition
is available in most popular calibers and is considered
by many hunters to be as good as or better than traditional
lead ammunition. Experts said manufacturers will respond
to demand, thus solving the problem.
Individual papers may be downloaded here.
Efforts by the Arizona Game and Fish Department to
encourage hunters to voluntarily reduce lead exposure
of condors influenced 90% of hunters in the 2008 hunting
season to use solid copper bullets as an alternative
to lead-based ammunition or remove all remains of their
harvest from the landscape. As a result, no condors
died from lead poisoning this season.
"If this result can be achieved throughout the
condor's range, our data shows that condors could survive
in the wild without the intensive and expensive management
needed now to combat lead poisoning," said Dr.
Grainger Hunt, a scientist for The Peregrine Fund and
contributor to the conference proceedings.
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