Brian
Has the soil been tested? Is the lead chemically mobile? Or is this just a
"metal" problem that only crops up when the shot is eaten?
Greg
-----Original Message-----
From: b_ellis [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 12:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LF] Shooting range + "New" old topic
On this small island, about 25% of the adult male population practice
the "sport" of taking pot shots at anything that moves (sometimes
including themselves). That is about 40,000 licensed hunters and
probably half as many again as poachers. Let's say that, conservatively,
each of these fires off 20 cartridges per year (many get through
hundreds) and each cartridge contains 25 g of lead shot. If my maths
serve me correctly, that is 30 tonnes of lead, let loose into nature. A
goodly number of pellets must enter food chains by various means
(injured birds and small mammals eaten by raptors and crows, as well as
waders dredging shot, grazing goats and sheep, crops and I even found
some grapefruit in my garden peppered!). This is a political problem
because no politician is going to risk his seat at the next election by
proposing stiff measures when there are so many voters who "hunt".
I have nothing against hunters who shoot game cleanly to feed a starving
brood of kids, but many of these are the "upper crust" who don't lack
for a cent or two. I'm convinced they do it because their gun is an
extension of their phallus and they like to shoot it off to show what
big boys they are, especially as they kill inedible species, often in
game reserves and illegally close to habitations (witness my grapefruit)
or poach protected and even endangered species. These are not
"sportsmen", they are ignoble assassins and, quite frankly, it gives me
pleasure when I read in the paper that one of them received a load of
buckshot up their behind :-)
I guess this at something well over a billion particles of lead
dispersed over the countryside, in a small country (the free area is
roughly the size of Delaware). Let's say that 1/4 of the area is
suitable for hunting (the shooting in the cities is better targetted!).
This is roughly equivalent to one pellet of lead per m2 left in the wild
each year. Who the hell cares about a few kg of lead in solder? Why, the
politicians who haven't got the guts to stand up and denounce this
vandalism because electronics waste has less votes attached. So Cyprus
continues to cause untold suffering to wild species, as well as
poisoning their own inhabitants, because lead-free shot is not
available. They may as well try using uranium!
Brian
PS Sorry for running into the emotional, but...
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