4 minute read
Dangers of lead poisoning
Next Article
Lead poisoning remains an issue in the outdoors
BY MIKE RAHN
Lead is one of the most useful elements. It has been an essential in the batteries that store electricity and bring our car and truck motors to life, and it’s found in most consumer batteries that power flashlights, toys, portable radios and other necessities and conveniences.
Lead has shielded medical personnel from harmful X-rays, is found in the finest crystal glassware, and - for decades - was an important additive in paint and gasoline.
Given lead’s abundance, low cost and resistance to deterioration, it was once long ago a standard raw material for pipes used to plumb our homes and businesses. In outdoor sports, lead has long been the most common material used in rifle and shotgun ammunition for hunting and in weighted fishing tackle.
Lead is also one of the most deadly elements.
It is in a class called “heavy metals” and is a neurotoxin that can accumulate in bones and soft tissues, interfere with our body’s enzymes and lead to nervous system damage that results in cognitive, functional and behavioral disorders. It is especially dangerous for young children and expectant mothers.
A HARD LESSON LEARNED IN WATERFOWL HUNTING
Lead can do crippling things to wildlife. The most high profile example is the lead poisoning of ducks, geese and swans that came to light in the 1980s. Birds were found to be dying after ingesting lead shotgun shell pellets that had accumulated on the floor of shallow waters where waterfowl are hunted. Waterfowl mistook them for the gravel and grit their gizzards need to break up food during digestion.
Gastric juices release lead salts from the pellets, and lead enters the bloodstream. If enough is present, the result can be loss of muscle control and digestive ability, emaciation, seizures and death. The widespread discovery of these effects in the 1980s led to the banning of lead pellets
Hwy. 371, Nisswa | 800-322-3525 | info@nisswadock.com
in shotgun ammunition used for waterfowl hunting after more than a century of use.
The transition away from lead was initially resisted because the first soft iron substitutes damaged some older shotgun barrels, and - steel being lighter than lead - were less effective in killing game cleanly. Research and development have now given waterfowl hunters improved nontoxic alternatives, some thought to be even better than lead, though generally more expensive.
The transition demonstrated that the inconvenience of change could be temporary, and eventually overcome.
LOONS, SWANS, LURES AND SINKERS
Fast-forward several decades, and lead poisoning remains an issue in the outdoors. Today it has different dimensions and differing opinions on the magnitude of the problem, as well as what to do about it.
Lead has historically been the material almost universally used in fishing weights, or “sinkers,” used to submerge live bait to attract and catch fish. Lead is also the most common material in jigs, which are lures that consist of a hook embedded in a molded weight that sinks the lure, typically garnished with live or artificial bait.
Lead weights and jigs are used in both ice fishing and open water angling. Lead has been used because it is a heavy raw material, is abundant and cheap, and the manufacturing process is cheap because lead melts at low temperature.
Some anglers even melt lead and mold their own jigs.
Lead weights and jigs are being blamed for the poisoning of loons and swans, and perhaps to a lesser extent other waterfowl. Unlike shotshell pellets used in bird hunting, lead fishing weights and jigs accumulate in lakes and rivers by accident. They can be lost when snagged on underwater obstructions or wedged between rocks, while attempting to land a fish or due to faulty knot tying.
Though typically larger than most shotshell pellets, these fishing tackle items may be small enough that birds mistake them for grit and consume them.
Even though the loss of this tackle is unintentional and random, it’s believed to be substantial. Research led by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ fisheries biologist Paul Radomski on heavily fished Lake Mille Lacs estimated that over a 20-year period anglers might lose up to one million weights and jigs. While not all would be of a size small enough to be mistaken for grit and consumed by waterfowl, some certainly are - particularly the round “splitshot” weights that are pinched or crimped directly on fishing line.
Radomski said in a written communication that the latest statistics from post-mortem examinations of dead loons showed a lead poisoning rate of 14%. Only those dead loons that are actually found and recovered before decomposition takes place can be tested, so the number that die of lead poisoning is an estimate, believed to be about 100 to 200 per year, Radomski said.
“Lead is also highly toxic to anglers, especially young children, who handle or may consume it accidentally,” he said. “There is no scientifically established safe level of exposure to lead.”
Tundra and trumpeter swans, some of which migrate through or nest in Minnesota, have also been victims of lead poisoning. Like loons, geese and ducks, they consume small pebbles and grit for the digestion that begins in their gizzard. Since 2019, more than 20
“Lead is also highly toxic to anglers, especially young children, who handle or may consume it accidentally. There is no scientifically established safe level of exposure to lead.”
Paul Radomski, DNR fisheries biologist
CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
#eatmorefish
Hwy 371 N, Baxter 218-829-8248
FIND US ON FB
@MOREYSMARKETS
Hwy 10 S, Motley 218-352-2210
