Firearms Industry Statement on MN Dept of Agriculture Game Donati...( NEWTOWN Conn. Dec. 4 -- The National...),Health

NEWTOWN, Conn., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- issued the following statement in response to study results from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture claiming 5.3 percent of whole cut venison donations, processed for a Minnesota food donation program, contained "very small amounts" of lead fragments:

The question of whether traditional ammunition -- lead ammunition that hunters have used for literally hundreds of years -- poses a threat to those who consume harvested game meat has been answered by a recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study.

In a word, that answer is, "No."

In looking at the CDC study results, the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. In other words, if you were to randomly pick someone on the street to test, chances are they would have a higher blood lead level than the hunters in the CDC study.

Also of note, the lead levels of children under 6 -- those who the Minnesota Department of Health deem "the most at risk" -- had a mean of just 0.88 micrograms per deciliter of blood, that's less than 1 part per billion and less than half the national average. Children over 6 had even lower lead levels. The CDC's level of concern for lead in children is 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood.

NSSF is encouraging all hunters, and all government officials, to follow science and common sense and not respond to fear based on unscientific studies and unwarranted claims.

For more than a century, hundreds of millions
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