http://www.casperstartribune.net/articl ... 7daa08.txt
http://www.startribune.com/local/194389 ... r=HomepageLead study blood samples go to CDC
By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press writer
with staff reports
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 2:08 AM MDT
BISMARCK, N.D. -- State and federal health officials have finished collecting blood samples from more than 700 North Dakotans who ate wild game shot with lead bullets.
North Dakota health officials and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are studying whether there are health risks for people who eat the meat, said Dr. Stephen Pickard, an epidemiologist with the state Health Department.
Blood samples were collected May 16 to May 30, from 738 people in North Dakota's six largest cities, Pickard said. The samples were taken from children as young as 2 to adults, Pickard said. Most were collected from adults who had eaten venison killed with high-velocity ammo, though some samples were taken from people who had eaten pheasants and waterfowl shot with either lead or non-lead pellets, he said.
The samples have been sent to CDC's laboratory in Atlanta, Pickard said. The study includes only North Dakota residents, he said.
"We hope to find nothing, of course," Pickard said. "It will tell us if there is a substantial blood-lead level increase."
Results are expected before this year's fall hunting season, Pickard said.
"No study is definitive," he said. "We hope to have a set of guidelines and recommendations that we can give to hunting community of what the risk is, and what the hunting community can do to minimize that risk."
Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples.
The Peregrine Fund, a Boise, Idaho-based conservation group that works to protect birds of prey, conducted a separate study in concert with scientists from Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, in which researchers examined professionally processed meat from hunter-killed deer in Wyoming.
Eighty percent of the deer killed by high-velocity lead-based ammunition in that study produced at least some meat with metal fragments or metal "dust" in it, and 92 percent of the metal found was lead, according to the leaders of the project.
North Dakota and Minnesota officials, worried about lead bullet fragments, told food bank operators in March to discard deer meat donated by hunters. Some groups that donate venison to the needy called the actions premature and unsupported by science.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will meet Wednesday to discuss lead fragments in venison. Health officials, wildlife experts and hunting representatives from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin have been invited.
It seems to me that every aspect of our lives that demonstrate self reliance, use of firearms, or traditional values is under attack. I'm getting sick of this country and the times we live in.Minn. hosts meeting on lead fragments in venison
Associated Press
June 1, 2008
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Experts on wildlife, public health and food safety from five states including Wisconsin are meeting in Minnesota this week to talk about lead fragments in deer shot by hunters.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is hosting Wednesday's meeting.
DNR wildlife section chief Dennis Simon says the meeting kicks off a regional effort to come up with recommendations on the issue. Each state will evaluate its venison-donation program, which allows hunters to give meat to food shelves.
Some venison was recalled from food shelves in Minnesota and North Dakota after lead fragments were found in the meat. Officials say they didn't know the health risks associated with consumption of lead particles from ammunition. No illnesses have been reported.
The meeting will also include hunting representatives and officials from North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.
© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Wish I could do something about it.
Joe
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to pay for $5.50 gallon gas.instead of supporting the fantasy island in their head.