[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: "Historic Vote Moves California Closer to Banning Lead Hunting Ammunition"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

For Immediate Release
Center for Biological Diversity
September 9, 2013


Historic Vote Moves California Closer to Banning Lead Hunting Ammunition
Ban Will Protect Wildlife, People From Needless Lead Poisoning


SACRAMENTO - The California Senate today passed historic legislation  
to protect the state’s condors, eagles and other wildlife from lead  
poisoning by requiring the use of nonlead ammunition for all hunting  
by 2019. Assembly Bill 711 (Rendon) passed by a vote of 23-15; it  
passed the state Assembly in May. If the bill is signed by the  
governor, California will be the first state in the country to  
require the use of nontoxic bullets and shot for all hunting.

"California is on the verge of a historic step toward protecting  
people and wildlife from needless lead poisoning," said Jeff Miller,  
conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The  
governor needs to sign this critical legislation. There’s no reason  
to keep putting toxic lead into the food chain or risking human  
health when there are nontoxic bullets already on the market and in  
use by hunters.”

A.B. 711 would require the state Fish and Game Commission to issue  
regulations by July 1, 2015, that phase in use of nonlead ammunition  
for hunting of all kinds, including game mammals, game birds, nongame  
birds and nongame mammals. These requirements would be fully  
implemented statewide no later than July 1, 2019.

"Lead ammunition is one of the largest unregulated sources of lead  
knowingly put into the environment in the United States," said  
Miller. "We've banned lead in gasoline, paint, plumbing, eating  
utensils, toys, jewelry and even imported candy. Now we can get the  
lead out for our wildlife."

Nationwide, millions of nontarget birds and other wildlife are  
poisoned each year from scavenging carcasses containing lead-bullet  
fragments, eating lead-poisoned prey, or ingesting spent lead-shot  
pellets, mistaking them for food or grit. Spent lead ammunition  
causes lead poisoning in 130 species of birds and animals. Nearly 500  
scientific papers document the dangers to wildlife from this lead  
exposure.

Scientists, doctors and public-health experts from top universities  
around the country recently called for a phaseout of lead hunting  
ammunition, citing overwhelming scientific evidence of toxic dangers  
posed to people and wildlife.

California began phasing out lead hunting ammunition in 2008 to  
protect critically endangered California condors due to continued  
lead poisoning in the state’s three reintroduced condor flocks. The  
Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act and state regulations required  
hunters to use nonlead ammunition for all hunting within the central  
and Southern California condor range. Those regulations demonstrate  
that hunters statewide can easily transition to hunting with nontoxic  
bullets. In fact, there has been no decrease in game tags or hunting  
in central and Southern California in the five years since those  
regulations went into effect. Neighboring Arizona has refused to  
require nontoxic ammunition for hunting, despite an epidemic of lead  
poisonings and deaths of the Grand Canyon population of endangered  
condors.

A coalition of 268 organizations from 40 states has petitioned the  
EPA for nationwide regulations ending the use of toxic lead hunting  
ammunition. Conservation groups filed suit in 2012 when the EPA  
refused to act. A federal judge dismissed the case in May on  
technical grounds but did not rule on the substance of the claim:  
whether the EPA should regulate lead ammunition under the Toxic  
Substances Control Act. Conservation groups are considering appealing  
the ruling.

A national poll released earlier this year found that 57 percent of  
Americans support requiring the use of nontoxic bullets for hunting.

Background

Lead is an extremely toxic substance that is dangerous to people and  
wildlife even at low levels. Lead exposure can cause a range of  
health effects, from acute poisoning and death to long-term problems  
such as reduced reproduction, inhibition of growth, and damage to  
neurological development.

Studies using radiographs show that lead ammunition leaves fragments  
and numerous imperceptible, dust-sized particles of lead that  
contaminate game meat far from a bullet track, causing significant  
health risks to people eating wild game. Some state health agencies  
have had to recall venison donated to feed the hungry because of  
dangerous lead contamination from bullet fragments.

There are numerous commercially available, nontoxic alternatives to  
lead rifle bullets and shotgun pellets. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife  
Service prohibited use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting in 1991 and  
there are more than a dozen approved nonlead shot types. More than  
three dozen manufacturers market nonlead bullets in 35 calibers and  
51 rifle cartridge designations, with superior ballistics, accuracy  
and safety. A recent study deflates any argument that price and  
availability of nonlead ammunition preclude switching to nontoxic  
rounds for hunting; researchers found no major difference in the  
retail price of equivalent lead-free and lead-core ammunition for  
most popular calibers.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit  
conservation organization with more than 625,000 members and online  
activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild  
places.

********************************************

Jeff Miller
Conservation Advocate
Center for Biological Diversity
351 California Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94104
www.biologicaldiversity.org


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