Extensive use of toxic lead paint on Big Ben contributes to £19m price-hike in renovation.
I’m pretty sure that there isn’t 6000 tonnes of lead in Big Ben but that amount is added irretrievably to the countryside every year. And, of course, shooters all over the country, through choice not necessity, have been shooting toxic lead into gamebirds which end up in the human food chain (Food Standards Agency, NHS England). A report proposing the phasing out of lead ammunition which was submitted to government in 2015 has still had no impact on government policy.
Liz Truss, Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove, Theresa Villiers and now George Eustice…
Bong!
Bong!
Bong!
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The UK government has failed us very badly on this. They agreed in Quito at an international meeting in November 2014 to phase out lead ammunition in three years. it did not happen.
Their own set up lead ammunition group recommended phasing out lead ammunition and switching to non toxic shot. The then environment secretary Liz Truss ignored it.
It is the law that wildfowling and shooting over wetlands must use non toxic shot, yet the vast majority of wildfowl examined by WWT had been shot with lead.
Lead is a seriously toxic, accumulative poison especially to the young, there are perfectly adequate alternatives there absolutely no excuse for using lead ammunition and using it for game entering the food chain is at best foolhardy at worse utterly unacceptable.