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VPC - Poisonous Pastime - Section One Page 5 of 16 Effects on Wildlife. Lead has devastating effects on wildlife that mistake lead shotgun pellets for food or grit and ingest it. Ducks and geese, for example, "deliberately swallow small bits of stone and gravel to help grind up food in their gizzards.i19 When this grit contains lead, the result is lead poisoning and a slow and agonizing death. "You see them walking with drooping wings and they can't fly," an Illinois veterinarian said recently. "It really is a terrible death because it's very slow and gradual." 20 Waterfowl have been most directly impacted historically —from 1.5 to 2.5 million died every year from lead poisoning until 1991, when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service banned use of lead shot for hunting them. But other avian species, ranging from songbirds to bald eagles, are also poisoned by ingesting lead shot directly or in their prey.21 In any case, the lead shot ban does not extend to other forms of hunting or to target shooting. In addition, in 1997 a source in the ammunition industry said that about 20 percent of American hunters still use lead in defiance of the ban —the result is that about 300,000 ducks and geese are still poisoned each year by lead shot.22 Sources of Lead at Shooting Ranges Exposure to lead poisoning in indoor firing ranges comes primarily from inhaling lead particles suspended in the air in the range (although it may also be ingested orally, with contaminated food for example). These particles come principally from ignition of the primer, which contains lead styphnate,h from microscopic lead particles scraped off the bullet as it passes through the gun barrel, and from lead dust created when the bullet strikes the target or the backstop behind the target.23 Pollution from outdoor ranges comes primarily from spent shotgun pellets and rifle bullets, including materials fired into backstops, called "berms," or out over waterways. According to Sports Afield, "the quantity of recreational lead deposited in the environment is enormous. For example, at some trap and skeet ranges, lead shot densities of 1.5 billion pellets per acre have been recorded. That's 334 pellets in every square foot.i24 (This massive pollution at shooting ranges is entirely separate from another question, posed by a U.S. Forest Service official at a gun industry shooting range symposium, of "where the lead is going for the millions of shooters who currently are not using established ranges," but are instead shooting on open public land.25) Another source of airborne lead for some range shooters is casting their own lead bullets by pouring molten lead into molds of the appropriate size for the caliber bullet desired. Although beyond the scope of this study, a number of sources warn that this practice can cause serious lead poisoning.26 Melting lead produces a fume which can remain airborne for several hours, is easily inhaled, and can contaminate surfaces.27 The director of a New Hampshire occupational health center said some of the worst cases of lead poisoning he has seen have been in people who make their own bullets, and warned of "an amazing lack of awareness" of the danger. "That's a wonderful way to poison not only yourself but members of your family," said another state health official.26 Indoor Shooting Ranges Indoor shooting ranges have been identified as serious lead poisoners since at least the mid-1970s, documented in a string of studies by public health authorities.29 Although an official of a major shooting range supply company attacked the early warnings as' lead -intoxication hysteria" in a 1976 issue of The Police Chief magazine,30 no serious challenge has been mounted to the growing body of science underlying the indisputable fact that lead poisoning is a serious threat to health at indoor shooting ranges.' An NRA official speaking in 1990 said, "Lead contamination directly contributed to closing hundreds of indoor ranges in the last 20 years.i31 Nevertheless, indoor shooting ranges continue to appear regularly in public health records and news stories as major offenders for lead poisoning. For http://www.vpc.org/studies/leadone.htm 2/5/2014