Have been going through this since it first started, I still have a copy of the Federal Register when the first ban on lead was proposed. The "reports" have since been found completely misleading. Lead is a naturally leaching material in nature. The report showed 43 loons dead over an 11 year period - testing revealed 7 of the 43 were from chemical poisoning. So over an 11 year period 36 birds - 3.272727 a year, that in no way justifies the dire situation they protrayed in the report.

Look at the fish farm owner who got busted for killing birds http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairba...owner_says.php

Here's the list of birds if you don't want to read the whole article

90 brown pelicans
17 great blue herons
five great egrets
four black-crowned night herons
four turkey vultures
two osprey
two gulls
one scaup


I saw one report that MILLIONS of birds were dead due to lead poisioning - if that had happened where are all the news camera's showing all the dead bodies??? When 2000 blackbirds fell dead out of the sky it was all over the news http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/03/...-arkansas-sky/

Last year fishing line and pieces of cast nets accounted for more bird kills than reported for lead (and lead while suspected) was eventually ruled out after tests.

Here's the article Allan was talking about http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...r-development/

Here in Vermont lead split shot, and sinkers 1/2 oz or less must be tin. Okay I'll buy those for my fishing. Many lure craft sites I go to we're all using powder paint on our jigs, lures and spinner baits. This prevents the lead from leaching.

It just really bugs me that the first words out of the environmentalists are they're dead from lead poisoning. It's been ruled out so many times it makes them sound totally irrational. Illegal chemicals are dumped around the country every year, the chemicals used in fracing polluting streams, contamination from old copper mines. But even with all of this it always seems the headlines read "Bird Deaths caused by Lead Poisoning". If these folks are so against lead, I'm surprised they're not beating down the doors at Ebay and Craigs list, where lead sales have become a hot ticket.