Six reasons to ban lead ammunition (5)

No maximum lead levels are set for game meat sold for human consumption in the UK so there is no protection for the consumer through food regulations. The easiest solution is to ban the use of lead ammunition. Tests have shown that lead levels in game meat (eg partridges, grouse, pheasant) on sale in UK…

Six reasons to ban lead ammunition (4)

It has been illegal to use lead ammunition to shoot wildfowl (in England) since 1999 but shooters are regularly breaking the law. In 2010 (10 years after a ban on lead ammunition for shooting wildfowl) a test of compliance showed that 70% of ducks available for sale for human consumption contained lead ammunition. This should…

Six reasons to ban lead ammunition (3)

From the findings of the Lead Ammunition Group: 10,000 children are growing up in households where they could regularly be eating sufficient game shot with lead ammunition to cause them neurodevelopmental harm and other health impairments.   Gamekeepers’ families will presumably be at highest risk – and yet the shooting organisations have opposed any restraints…

Six reasons to ban lead ammunition (2)

Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of waterfowl die from lead poisoning in the UK every year. Spent lead shot – the bits that missed their target, accumulate in the environment and are ingested from the sediments of lakes and rivers by ducks searching for food. The lead pellets accumulate in the birds’ gizzards…

Six reasons to ban lead ammunition (1)

The Danes banned all lead ammunition (even for their Olympic shooting team) almost 20 years ago – in 1996. It’s not a new thing, or a radical thing, it’s a sensible thing because lead poisons waterfowl, is a poison in game meat shot with lead, and non-toxic alternatives exist. The Danes didn’t stop shooting in…