Dear EarthTalk: What's the big deal about lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle? If an animal is going to die anyway, it's not going to get lead poisoning, right?     -- Bill Joyce, Euclid, OH

• The issue of lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle isn't so much about lead contaminating the spoils of hunters and fishermen but about lead accumulating in our ecosystems and poisoning other animals that ingest it. "Lead is an extremely toxic element that we've sensibly removed from water pipes, gasoline, paint and other sources dangerous to people," reports the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). "Yet toxic lead is still entering the food chain through widespread use of lead hunting ammunition and fishing tackle, poisoning wildlife and even threatening human health."
• The group reports that at least 75 wild bird species in the United States--including bald eagles, golden eagles, ravens and endangered California condors--are routinely poisoned by spent lead ammunition. Meanwhile, every year thousands of cranes, ducks, swans, loons, geese and other waterfowl ingest spent lead shot or lead fishing sinkers lost in lakes and rivers "often with deadly consequences."
• "Animals that scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated with lead bullet fragments, or wading birds that ingest spent lead-shot pellets or lost fishing weights

mistaking them for food or grit, can die a painful death from lead poisoning, while others suffer for years from its debilitating effects," reports CBD. Across the U.S. some 3,000 tons of lead are shot into the environment by hunters every year. Another 80,000 tons are released at shooting ranges, and 4,000 tons in fishing lures and sinkers are lost in ponds and streams. CBD estimates that as many as 20 million birds and mammals in the U.S. die every year as a result.
• Of course, lead ammunition also

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