I wonder. Split shots are pretty much 100% lead? Suppose there is anything wrong with having your house painted with lead based paint?
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I wonder. Split shots are pretty much 100% lead? Suppose there is anything wrong with having your house painted with lead based paint?
Just to add a little science to the fray:
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/b...n/ingested.htm
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_inf...ning/index.jsp
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_inf...ds_sinkers.pdf
Sources at the USGS in reference to the impact of lead in the environment to waterfowl. While it deals mostly with lead shot from guns the PDF on "sinkers" is relevant. A quick search on the INTERNET explains the solubility of lead in (stomach or gizzard) acid and its transformation in to (lead) compounds which can be absorbed in to the bloodstream.
I have been reading this thread with some interest.
Here in the UK, we have had a ban on lead shot, split or otherwise for a good many years.
The reason was, shot from duck hunters or split shot from anglers was getting mixed up with
the grit and pebbles in streams or on the ground. It was noticed, first with swans then with
other water-birds, that a lot of them were succumbing to some kind of disease.
What was happening was they were picking the shot up with the grit they required
for their crops, which they need to break up seeds etc.
So, a ban on the use of lead shot in angling and shooting was enacted.
Which was a very reasonable and necessary measure.
Lead is not an unnatural material, it can sometimes be found in tailings
from old mine workings but even then it is not very significant.
Any bird that is daft enough to swallow a trout fly with lead wire in its body,
will die of avian stupidity or the steel hook. The amount of lead used on a fly
really is insignificant.
The amount of lost shot from anglers and hunters was definitely a problem
but using lead wire etc on flies was not, and is not.
The other big problem with lead is church roofs, with the price of scrap metal
these days, all the thieving villains are stripping the roofs at night.
I won't talk about copper cables.
I think I will continue to use lead substitutes. It's so easy to avoid even the possibility of contributing to unintended wildlife mortality............................
By the way, I still believe in global warming although many, many do not and, instead, attack the scientists who confirm it....................
The switch to non lead tackle as well as ammunition is inevitable. It's going to happen one way or the other over time. I'm hard pressed to find lead sinkers anymore unless I'm in a road side tackle shop with an old inventory. Non-toxic sinkers are so readily available and it's being stocked in almost every store it's a no-brainer. As for why animals would eat lead pellets and tackle, ducks were picking it up off the bottom when they were feeding, raptors and other animals will get it by eating other animals that have been shot and pellets stuck inside. Humans have the ability to chew their food so we know when we bite down on a pellet, an eagle rips and tears it's food in chunks. I see lead ammunition going by the wayside in the future it may take some time but it will happen, in some places on certain lands you already are required to use non-toxic shot, and with the strides that have been made in alternatives to lead in the past decade alone it won't affect hunters all that much. Non-toxic shot performs just as well as lead.
Like I stated... Chemists without a bias and strong backgrounds have failed to find the same results... Repeatedly. The issue has been politicized with the early "science" being given the nod when folks do not know.
Please understand, lead is bad stuff... yet those with great exposure tend not to have high levels. Lead bullet casters, for example.
The new evidence in the global warming front shows there was rampant cheating on the "Scientific" results. The agenda was to invent study results by lying and "refiguring" stuff. The fact is the CO2 concentration as it is understood now has virtually zero correlation to the global temperature. The data fudgers are under serious scrutiny. The same is happening when unbiased folks look at the lead controversy.
It's an Undeniable Truth: It's been proven that a lead bullet(even a jacketed one), fired from a pistol held by the user and directly into his or hers right ear, is indeed harmful to that users health.
Allan
Like I said, I wonder if those who support the use of lead would support still using lead based paint?