On Valentine's Day the EPA must respond to the latest petition to have EPA regulate/ban lead fishing gear under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
I have listed the site below where you can look at the petition. It has a good table of contents so you can skip to the section(s) that interest you.
If you want to know what "science" they have behind the petition, I have copied below the petition's "statistics" and data. Their approach is that buying new lead means that the same amount of lead was lost.
I'm not ranting here, but howmany shot sinkers do you lose a day? Maybe one or none? Even cork fishing how many do you lose? Who created these loss figures? No one. i know crappie fishermen that have like a gazillion lead head jigs because they always think a new size or color will make the fish jump on the hook.
Oh, well. Let's see what Valentines brings.
Another thought, are loons just dumb, and if not, why aren't storks and cranes and herons and ducks in the deep south dying in droves?

http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/TSCA_sinker_petition.pdf
Accurate quantitative information on how much lead is entering the environment from lead fishing weights and tackle sinkers is not available, but approximations can be made from the quantities of lead fishing tackle sold in the U.S., assuming most or many sinkers are purchased to replace those lost while fishing (Scheuhammer et al 2003), and from studies of sinker and tackle loss by anglers. Roughly 4,000 metric tons of lead fishing sinkers are sold annually in the U.S. (Scheuhammer et al 2003; USGS 200. Studies of sinker and tackle loss rates among recreational anglers vary - a variety of factors can influence whether lead will be lost, including the type of fishing activity, the location of the activity, the time of year, and the skill of the angler. Fishers lost 2-3 sinkers per angling day in the United Kingdom (Bell et al. 1985). Anglers in the U.S. reported losing
0.18 sinkers/hour, and 0.23 hooks and lures/hour, with 2% of anglers reporting losing a fish with tackle still attached (Duerr 1999). Radomski et al. (2006) reported average loss rates on Minnesota lakes of 0.0127 lures per hour, 0.0081 large sinkers per hour, 0.0057 split shot sinkers per hour, 0.0247 jigs per hour, and 0.0257 hooks per hour;
for a estimated total of one metric ton of lead lost for 6,000 anglers in 2004.