Lead Toxicity

For hundreds of years, lead was used as an additive in paint, gasoline, pipes, and other materials. Citing lead’s extreme health risks to humans, especially children, in 1977, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lead paint in residential and public buildings as well as in toys and furniture. In 1996, it was banned from use in gasoline.

Unfortunately, the use of lead in bullets and shotgun pellets continues to provide a pathway for lead poisoning in humans and wildlife, including Golden Eagles, hawks, and condors.

An estimated 16 million birds are poisoned by lead every year. Some birds, like Bald Eagles, accidentally ingest lead shotgun pellets and ammunition fragments when scavenging on carcasses or remains left by hunters. Other birds, such as Mourning Doves, mistake spent shot for seed in fields and forests, while diving birds like Common Loons swallow lead fishing tackle as they forage on lake bottoms.

Lead bullet fragments or residues in game meat also pose a significant risk to hunters and their families. For more information, see huntingwithnonlead.org.

Perhaps the most iconic example of the impact lead toxicity can have on a species’ population is that of the California Condor. Their numbers dipped as low as 22 individual birds in 1987, due in part to lead poisoning caused by eating animal carcasses containing lead shot.

Years of conservation efforts have helped the California Condor population surpass 600, but the threat of lead poisoning remains. A 2012 study found that two-thirds of California Condor deaths were caused by lead poisoning. Between 45 and 95 percent of the condor population continues to test positive for lead exposure. In response, California passed a law that will phase out the use of lead ammunition for any hunting purpose by July 1, 2019.

A number of states, such as Missouri and Colorado, have taken action to protect wildlife management areas from toxic ammunition. Many national wildlife refuges are also conducting programs to educate hunters on the use and benefits of non-lead ammunition and are even giving away non-toxic ammunition for sportspeople to use in the field.

In 2023, ABC conducted a review of state wildlife agency websites and found that fewer than 20 percent of them had information about the impacts of non-toxic ammunition and tackle or the dangers of lead-based ammunition and tackle. We reached out to all 50 states and provided language and peer-reviewed citations on the subject to prompt more outreach.

Non-lead options, such as copper, tin, and tungsten, are readily available; the more these products are used, the more affordable and widely accepted they will become.