Ingesting lead from pellets and bullets

[J@son]

I read an interesting post recently on how a very small amount of lead contamination in some mince had made a stalker’s dogs very ill indeed. This got me wondering (and worrying) about the amount of lead I have ingested over the years and what the health implications are for people who, like me, eat a lot of wild meat.

When I was in my early 30s, I had to have a scan/barium meal. This showed up a fair few beads of lead shot in my gut from the pheasants I had eaten earlier in the week. That was 20 years ago... and i’ve put away a great deal of pheasant and venison since then.

I take reasonable precautions cutting out anything that’s obviously bullet/pellet damaged. But of course some shot will always get through.

The other day I was boiling up some carcasses for stock and found several balls of shot at the bottom of the pan. Again, it got me thinking. I have been simmering several little beads of lead over night in something I will later use to make soup! This cannot be a good idea. But I would love to know what the implications of this sort of thing actually are and would be genuinely interested to know what others think.

 

[Uncle f]

This is one for roestalker mate he’s the expert on all things lead bud.
He’ll be along soon I’m sure

 

[Stimo444]

Not sure bismuth, steel or tungsten will be any better for you than lead, just take any obvious pellets out and eat the rest

 

[Apthorpe]

I wouldn’t use that for soup, especially if your stock contained anything acidic, eg. Fruit juice, vinegar.

The risk arises not from the lead pellet itself, but from its soluble compounds formed when it reacts. Your digestive system is nothing like as powerful as a dog’s.

The short answer is that no person in any country in the history of the world has ever been demonstrated to have suffered any particular ill health from eating lead-shot game. That said, it makes sense to me to avoid reckless or unnecessary exposure.

To me reckless exposure includes eating meat surrounding anywhere near the wound track of an animal shot with a high-velocity fragmenting bullet, because the fragmentation enormously increases the area of lead available for your stomach acid to work on. These are the bits of meat often used for mince. It does not include eating pheasants, where there seems little evidence that non-fragmenting pellets of non-expanding low velocity lead have the same order of risk.
The issue of banning lead from shotgun ammunition almost certainly is entirely irrelevant to human health.

 

[ndt man]

You will probably die of old age before you die of lead poisoning ....

 

[8885]

Used to carry air gun pellets in my mouth when rook shooting and at different times.Not sure I would do it now. That's on top of eating game all my life.
Still here though.

 

[Heym SR20]

Two things to note.

1) your stomach is acidic by nature and any lead will remain in the stomach for a few hours and will be partially dissolved. Not much, but a little bit each time. The lead will then be absorbed and deposited into body material in particular bone. Body has no way of getting rid of absorbed heavy metals so the effect is cumulative. The studies show that 25nmol of lead per litre of blood is the average lead load in a sample of leukaemia patients. The control sample had no traceable levels.

25 nmol is a very small amount - its
0.0000000207g of lead per litre of blood.

2) There is now clear scientific evidence that demonstrates that lead and other heavy metals in the blood create an environment for many cancers to flourish. The work has been on blood cancers such leukaemia and also they are now looking at small cell lung cancers.

The link is clear, they don’t necessarily understand yet the mechanism, but removing the heavy metals from the body using chelating drugs dramatically improves the outcome of chemotherapy for leukaemia patients under palliative care. The work is ongoing and at early stages.

I have been party to the above work, and knowing what I know now I certainly would not want to ingest lead or let my family and friends eat lead shot game.

Fully appreciate that many will not agree with the science and think that this is conspiracy theory etc.

 

[jb1]

There will still be a very high number of people still drinking water from lead pipes, but dont shout too loud about it cus they dont know. And i bet most of those are in the big city.

 

[Freeforester]

Is it as risky as say, wearing a tin foil hat? Or eating a carrot - I hear they kill everyone who ever had the misfortune to dine on them eventually too... as well as anyone who did not.

Oh, and just to assure you, Apthorpe, and anyone else even remotely concerned, this vendor of venison does NOT 'use' "these bits of meat ... for mince". As a sole trader, I invite you to ponder the reputational cost:benefit of doing such a thing, ever, when you are meeting your repeat customers weekly/monthly, and your name and reputation alongside are on each pack sold.

 

[Heym SR20]

There will still be a very high number of people still drinking water from lead pipes, but dont shout too loud about it cus they dont know. And i bet most of those are in the big city.

Lead pipe is much less of a problem as over time they become lined with lime stone calcification - pretty much like the inside of a kettle, which forms a protective coating. The problems come as the pipes break down, exposing the lead. They reckon the demise and madness of the roman empire was in part due to lead piping.

It’s why we no longer use lead in water supplies and haven’t for the last 50 odd years. Yes there are still high lead areas - notably West of Scotland - but here you should have filters on your water supply.

Old lead piping is a serious problem in parts of the US - notably the much older Eastern Seaboard and has been closely linked with high levels of delinquency and crime, albeit it’s an issue usually pushed well below the carpet by various administrations as it would unlock huge civil lawsuits.

Lead is cumulative - you can’t pass it out of your body like other toxins. Once its in its staying there.

 

[Freeforester]

They reckon the demise and madness of the roman empire was in part due to lead piping.

It’s why we no longer use lead in water supplies and haven’t for the last 50 odd years. Yes there are still high lead areas - notably West of Scotland - but here you should have filters on your water supply.

Explains a fair bit about some of the voters, then