Lead has been banned in piping and paint because of the dangers of lead to human health. These dangers are the reason we work hard to remove lead from homes and other places people may come into contact with it unnecessarily. Lead isn’t rare, in fact, it’s found pretty much everywhere (source). However, when humans get involved with natural cycles, like the food chain, problems arise.
Animals survive in the wild their whole lives without getting lead poisoning, even though they inevitably encounter lead in our natural world. But what happens when we start introducing extra lead into the ecosystem in concentrated doses?
Take hunting, for example, which usually involves guns that fire bullets or shells containing pellets made out of lead. Those chunks of lead end up in animal entrails left in the woods and in ponds that animals eat and drink from (https://ensia.com/features/lead-bullets-bad-for-people-why-keep-using-them/). This contamination is causing carnivorous birds and even waterfowl to die from lead poisoning through the ingestion of lead (https://pilotonline.com/life/wildlife-nature/virginia-eagles-were-found-with-lead-poisoning-six-died/article_5687ddfd-6c44-557c-a0e9-2e41c9c16243.html, https://ensia.com/features/lead-bullets-bad-for-people-why-keep-using-them/). These birds are much smaller than humans and the lead they consume wreaks havoc on their systems quickly.
Humans are also involved in this cycle. Many people hunt animals so that they can eat them, but most people probably don’t think about the fact that lead bullets shatter upon impact and tiny lead fragments get disbursed into the meat (https://ensia.com/features/lead-bullets-bad-for-people-why-keep-using-them/). Luckily, for us we are much larger than birds, so unless you are someone who consumes a lot of wild game, or a child, the impact of this lead consumption is negligible ((http://amjmed.org/lead-exposure-through-eating-wild-game/, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010315). However, it’s still something to think about.
We have to think about how our actions and the materials we use can affect us and disrupt natural cycles. We need to start using safer alternatives to lead and properly cleaning up areas where lead is accumulating to help preserve our natural world.
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