4 reasons why lead fishing tackle ban should be opposed

[RoadToad]

I'm going to try to give everyone a quick and simple chemistry lesson. Here goes...elements such as iron, copper, lead, etc are very stable in metallic form. If you combine them with other elements, you affect the degree of stability. Metallic lead, what sinkers are made of, is very, very stable. If you swallow a sinker, it'll pass through you with no ill effects. It is very resistant to acids.

Lead dissolves fairly quickly in acid solutions, including the hydrochloric acid in a person's stomach.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/815399-overview
Now, if you were to swallow a sinker whole, it may well pass through your system before enough is absorbed to cause a problem, but I wouldn't make a habit of it. But again, this is beside the point. What we're talking about is birds, not humans, and in many cases, when a bird swallows a lead weight, it remains in their stomach, and there can be enough of it absorbed to cause death by lead poisoning.

[RoadToad]

One thing I wonder about is how these birds end up swallowing sinkers? Are they inside some of the fish that they eat? Are they mistaking them for food? Seems to me most lost sinkers would end up at the bottom of the lake, and birds wouldn't get to them, but I must be missing something.

[kc]

I wondered the same thing. I read somewhere some time back that the issue was mostly shotgun shot where it gets scattered in the shallow marshes where the birds forage and they ingest it that way. I too am having a hard time imagining how the birds come in contact with lead fishing sinkers. Not that I know all uses for sinkers but when I use them it is usually around fairly deep water where if I lost one I don't see how a bird would come in contact with it. And if you stretch the thought to include jig heads well with a hook attached I can't imagine a bird ingesting although the hook with rust away over time. That is why I don't believe that there is credible data to back the claim that fishing lead is truly a threat to water birds...

kc

[RoadToad]

Biologists have been documenting this phenomenon for decades. I don't doubt that it happens, I'm just curious as to why, or how.

[creeker]

I also find it interesting that if you go to the EPA website for lead, here's what they list:

Most Common Sources of Lead Poisoning:

Deteriorating lead-based paint
Lead contaminated dust
Lead contaminated residential soil


Nowhere do they make mention of shotgun shot, shooting ranges, sinkers, etc.

[RoadToad]

I also find it interesting that if you go to the EPA website for lead, here's what they list:

Most Common Sources of Lead Poisoning:

Deteriorating lead-based paint
Lead contaminated dust
Lead contaminated residential soil


Nowhere do they make mention of shotgun shot, shooting ranges, sinkers, etc.

That's because the EPA site is about lead poisoning in HUMANS, not BIRDS. But even though it's not one of the most common causes, there are documented cases of people with lead toxicity from lead projectiles:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240701/

Have I mentioned yet that this proposed ban (which I have already said I oppose) is based on lead poisoning in BIRDS, not HUMANS?

[olgreenboat]

Doing a little out of the box thinking here I have to wounder.
These birds are migratory birds so if they told the truth or the hole story there is no telling where they got the led form but my guess would be a third would country or china / japan somthing like that remeber birds can not read warning signs so they may visit some real bad waters closed to the general public..

Here is some food for thought if you think about it our world is allways shaking/moving very small earth quake so if you take a piece of led and put it in some soft sedment or sand and water what would happen it would go futher down in the mud sand or what ever in short it would just keep sinking until it hit the hard pan or lime stone sorry but what there feeding us is BS at its finest and just another way the anti hunter is trying to shut us out.
Another thing to think about is when they lower the lakes how many people go around and pick up the led ? how many baits and sinkers have you picked up?. I know not all lakes are droped but even the ones that are not some times go thrugh a low level now and then from the lack of rain.

There is too many varables to point the finger at one thing. If you never had any contact with led your hole life and got tested for led you would show pos. why It's in the water you drink...

[linedrager]

That's because the EPA site is about lead poisoning in HUMANS, not BIRDS. But even though it's not one of the most common causes, there are documented cases of people with lead toxicity from lead projectiles:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240701/

Have I mentioned yet that this proposed ban (which I have already said I oppose) is based on lead poisoning in BIRDS, not HUMANS?

I am not apposed to killing birds in fact I would like to kill a few and eat them, sorry not picking on you just wanted to put in a quote, lead paint is not harmful until it breaks down and a kid eats it, hopefully if you have a kid you keep your house free of flaky paint, if not you are probably lazy and don't care about your children anyway, hay thats just my oppinion, I don't need the gov to take care of me I can do it myself.