This blog has praised Waitrose for its stance on lead in game meat – see here and here very recently for examples. But some blog readers, obviously Waitrose customers, have suggested that the game meat on sale is not lead free. One, at least, has questioned Waitrose on this and received the reply below which…
Category: LEAD AMMUNITION
Speaks for itself really
The RSPB and lead ammunition
The RSPB’s statements at the weekend have wrapped up within them a return to a publicly prominent position on lead ammunition. This must partly be because Debbie Pain is now an RSPB Council member. Since Debbie and I (in our previous existences) wrote to the Labour ministers in 2009 calling for a review of the…
An interesting paper – Pb in Buzzards
This is an interesting paper. Here is the Abstract; Ingestion of lead (Pb) derived from ammunition used in the hunting of game animals is recognised to be a significant potential source of Pb exposure of wild birds, including birds of prey. However, there are only limited data for birds of prey in Europe regarding tissue…
Hawk and Owl Trust favour removal of lead ammunition
Many readers of this blog may no longer care what the Hawk and Owl Trust thinks about things, in its post Philip Merricks state, but that would be uncharitable. And so when tipped off that the H&OT have developed a policy on lead ammunition I was keen to see what it was. This is what…
EU Member states vote for lead ban in all wetlands
This from the EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries; Woohoo! Obviously welcomed by conservationists across Europe. As I understand it this will include wetlands like blanket bogs and so, if only we were still in the EU, it would include driven grouse shooting. I’m still a Remainer but luckily (ha!ha!) all those Brexiteers like…
Letter in Guardian
In Europe most lead exposure is via the diet, and one source that can be readily eliminated is lead fragments from ammunition used to shoot wild game. …in 2018 the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) recommended against screening for elevated blood lead levels in young children, so the extent of children’s exposure is unknown, and…
News from the shooting bubble
From Twitter: Tim Bonner’s best tweet since his Linnethawk one. Worth a retweet to help spread the message to move away from poisonous lead ammo – some people don’t know whether they are coming or going though ( see BASC spoke with forked tongue?). In other news from the shooting bubble, Duncan Thomas has changed…
WWT stirs itself on lead
This article by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust on lead ammunition is well worth a read. James Robinson, Director of Conservation, is quoted as saying: Health, surely, is at the forefront of all our minds right now, yet countries blocking this proposal are passing up a golden opportunity to protect the health of their citizens,…
BASC spoke with forked tongue?
BASC is doing this a lot. One day they say something quite sensible and almost moderate, and the next they say something utterly ridiculous (and keep saying it for ages). One day they seem quite reasonable, and then they switch back to ranting and rudeness. If BASC were a person you’d be beginning to doubt…