It wouldn’t surprise me if Defra made a shockingly bad decision and failed to reduce the environmental risks of lead ammunition – they have been subject to energetic lobbying from the shooting industry and rather limp pleas from the two environmental NGOs who should be making the running (WWT and RSPB). It is clear that…
Category: LEAD AMMUNITION
Ban toxic lead ammunition
Rob Sheldon’s e-petition to ban toxic lead ammunition is making progress without much help from WWT and practically none from the RSPB. It recently passed 12,000 signatures and also received a response from Defra which does not mention that the report of the Lead Ammunition Group, which was submitted in June 2015, still has not…
Guest blog – Ban toxic lead ammunition by Rob Sheldon
Rob Sheldon is a freelance conservationist. He has worked in nature conservation for almost 20 years, including 12 years with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since 2013, he has been the Chairman of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, The Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME). Most recently he has worked…
Lead Week, 22 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. Here’s a summary of points made by this blog, this week, on the subject of lead in food. I spent a considerable chunk of my life as a scientist so I am reasonably happy reading the scientific evidence on this subject although some of it is certainly unfamiliar…
Lead Week, 21 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. It’s pretty awful that Defra has not come to any decision on lead ammunition which is a source of poison in our foods and our environment, but it is scandalous that it has not made the report of the Lead Ammunition Group public after receiving it almost eight…
Lead Week, 20 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. Three quarters of the grouse meat samples from Iceland Foods which I had tested would have been illegal if they had been found in other meat (though they were legal in game meat). A third of the samples had ten times the levels that would be legal in…
Lead Week, 19 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. By one of those interesting and unexpected coincidences, yesterday the Food Standards Agency had a live board meeting on the internet. They invited questions via social media and email. I wasn’t able to listen in to their board meeting but I did send them this series of…
Lead week, 18 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. Dear Supermarkets who sell game meat There are quite a few supermarkets who sell, or have sold, game meat. I believe they are all aware of this series of blogs on the lead content of game meat. Some have said that they will look into it – that’s…
Lead week, 17 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. BASC says: ‘There is no risk to those who do not eat shot game meat more than once a week throughout the year‘ The Food Standards Agency says: ‘There is no agreed safe level for lead intake.’ and ‘occasional consumption of lead-shot game birds’ that would have minimal…
Lead Week, 16 #Pbweekmia
This is Lead Week on this blog. These results are new but they are in line with previous studies – although with higher lead levels. The Lead Ammunition Group provided a report to government on lead ammunition in early June. That report, which I haven’t seen, must be thick, dry and packed with statistics and…