CDC Study Shows No Health Risk Associated with Traditional Ammunition
November 7th, 2008 by Syd
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition poses absolutely no health risk to people, including children, and that the call to ban lead ammunition was and remains a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups to forward their political agenda.
Today, additional information became available about the CDC study, originally released yesterday, that is important to disseminate to hunters, their families and the general public about the total and complete lack of any evidence of a human health risk from consuming game harvested using traditional ammunition. For instance, in the study the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American.
In the CDC’s study, children’s lead levels had a mean of just 0.88 micrograms per deciliter, which is less than half the national average for children and an infinitesimally small fraction of the level that the CDC considers to be of concern for children (10 micrograms per deciliter). Yet, despite the total and complete lack of any evidence from this study of the existence of a human health risk, the Department of Health nevertheless urges that children under 6 and pregnant women not eat venison harvested using traditional ammunition. The North Dakota Department of Health’s recommendation is based on a "zero tolerance" approach to the issue of blood lead levels that is not supported by science or the CDC’s guidelines.
To further put in perspective the claims concerning the safety of game harvested using traditional ammunition, consider this statement from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) — a state agency that has conducted an extensive panel of blood-lead testing for more than 15 years: "IDPH maintains that if lead in venison were a serious health risk, it would likely have surfaced within extensive blood-lead testing since 1992 with 500,000 youth under 6 and 25,000 adults having been screened." It has not.
Source: NSSF
My pilot type doc made me go get my cholesterol and all that checked since I’m adopted and have no history and had hit that (ahem) age 40 mark.
Cholesterol was 105, Blood pressure 105 over 58. With the diet of bacon and cheese you see on the blog.
I credit regular shooting for stress relief,.
And Guinness.
Anyone able to find that CDC study? I have searched their website but can’t find that particular paper.
Just interested in what sort of game they used in the study. The health risk for lead poisoning from deer taken with a jacketed bullet and a head shot is much different than waterfowl or small game taken with lead shot.
Even small amounts of lead are very bad for littluns. A single lead pellet can mess them up.
Not saying the NSSF is wrong in their interpretation of the study, but I would like to read the original myself.
Kris