We've posted in the past about Minnesota House hearings of bills to ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle. Now evidence has emerged that lead ammunition isn't just an upper Midwest problem.
Based at the Duluth News, John Myers reports in Research shows continentwide lead problem for eagles:
New research shows that lead poisoning is impacting eagles across the North American continent, the first evidence that lead is having a population-level impact on the big birds of prey.
Scientists from Conservation Science Global, Inc., the U.S. Geological Survey, West Virginia University, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and other institutions found that nearly half of the bald and golden eagles they studied showed chronic lead poisoning, and that lead poisoning is an important barrier to the growth of eagle populations across North America.
This paper, “Demographic implications of lead poisoning for eagles across North America,” is the first to show continentwide consequences of lead poisoning on any species of wildlife.
Lead is a highly toxic heavy metal ingested by eagles and other scavenging wildlife when they feed on the remains of animals that have been shot with lead ammunition, often deer carcasses or gut piles of animals that were shot with lead bullets, or birds that have been shot with lead shotgun pellets.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service researchers documented in 2012 that lead exposure is a significant mortality factor in bald eagles that inhabit the Upper Midwest Region. But the recent study appears to show a broader problem.
“This is the first study of lead poisoning of wildlife at a nationwide scale, and it demonstrates the unseen challenges facing these two iconic eagle species,” Vince Slabe, lead author on the study and Research Wildlife Biologist for Conservation Science Global, said in a statement. “Medical science tells us that, for humans, there is no safe amount of lead. Today, we also know that redistributed lead in our environment is harming eagle populations across North America.”
This study evaluated lead levels in more than 1,200 bald and golden eagles sampled between 2010 and 2018 and found age-related and seasonal variation in lead poisoning. . . .
Minnesota lawmakers earlier this month heard testimony from wildlife biologists and wildlife veterinarians that lead ammunition should be banned for hunting in the state, especially considering nontoxic alternatives to lead are widely available and reasonably priced, such as shotgun shells filled with steel pellets or rifle ammunition using copper bullets.
"A single piece of lead the size of a grain of rice will kill a bald eagle," Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center, told lawmakers. Hall said more than 85% of eagles admitted to the center for any problem have unhealthy lead levels in their blood and that as many as 30% die due to fatal lead levels.
Lead shot has been banned for all waterfowl hunting in the U.S. for decades. It’s also been banned in gasoline and paint since the 1970s due to the extreme detrimental impacts of lead poisoning in people, especially children.
Bills have been introduced at the Minnesota Legislature to ban or restrict lead ammunition but so far have been defeated by efforts of the National Rifle Association and the gun industry group the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which say lead from ammunition is not a major animal or human health issue. They also said hunters would be faced with severe supply-side ammunition shortages if lead is banned or phased out for hunting. . . .
Read the rest at Forum news chain papers.
Curiously, it's not just banning lead ammunition that's getting pushback in Minnesota legislative committees. Earlier this week, the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Committee heard Minneapolis DFL state representative Sydney Jordan's HF2650, which would replacement residential lead service lines.
Since lead is harmful to children and other living things, you'd think the bill would be a slam dunk. You'd be wrong. Watch the hearing starting at the 02:22 on the Minnesota House Information Service's Youtube here.
Related post:
- On Groundhog Day, MNHouse Preventive Health Policy Division heard about dangers of lead (2022)
- Twenty-one conservation groups petition DNR to ban lead tackle, ammunition in state parks, SNAs (2021)
- Getting the lead out permanently: watch girl scout speak up for trumpeter swans (2021)
- Getting the lead out: Minnesota House considering lead fishing tackle, ammunition bills (2020)
- MN swans died of lead poisoning, likely from anglers' sinkers; use nontoxic alternatives (2019)
- MN rep says lead is a-okay because it's natural; or, poisoning is life on Planet Josh Heintzeman (2017)
- Lead shot debate: bald eagles keep dying and here's what the MN House had to say about it (2017)
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) researchers examining 58 dead bald eagles in 2012. Sixty percent had detectable concentrations of lead; 38 percent had lethal lead concentrations. Credit: USFWS.
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