In a moment of clarity, the EPA doesn’t ban something. But wait, bigger craziness still looks to be on the horizon. See the end of the story.
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EPA PRESS RELEASE
Brendan Gilfillan giflfillan.brendan@epa.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2010
EPA Denies Petition Calling for Lead Ammunition Ban
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today denied a petition calling for a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA sent a letter to the petitioners explaining the rejection – that letter can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/sect21.html
Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, issued the following statement on the agency’s decision:
“EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – nor is the agency seeking such authority.
“This petition, which was submitted to EPA at the beginning of this month, is one of hundreds of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year. This petition was filed under TSCA, which requires the agency to review and respond within 90 days.
“EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead; however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.
“As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency’s authority over fishing sinkers, EPA – as required by law – will continue formally reviewing a second part the petition related to lead fishing sinkers.
“Those wishing to comment specifically on the fishing tackle issue can do so by visiting http://www.regulations.gov . EPA will consider comments that are submitted by September 15.”
R286
h/t to WUWT reader Michael C. Roberts
Background:
Lead for Shot, Bullets, and Fishing Sinkers
// <![CDATA[// August 3, 2010 — The American Bird Conservancy, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, and a number of other groups submitted a petition (PDF) (2 pp. 92 kb, About PDF) and attachment (PDF) (100 pp. 901 kb, About PDF) to EPA under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) asking EPA to “prohibit the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of lead for shot, bullets, and fishing sinkers.” Section 21 of TSCA allows citizens to file petitions, such as this one, and requires EPA to respond to any petition within 90 days of receiving it. EPA has just begun its review of this citizens’ petition and has made no determination on the requested action. Read EPA’s letter acknowledging receipt of the petition (PDF). (1 p. 189 kb, About PDF). To send your comments to EPA about this petition, please visit www.regulations.gov and enter Docket ID# EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0681.
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In other news:
The EPA is considering banning lead weights used to balance automobile tires:
http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1021157_green-groups-ask-epa-to-ban-lead-wheel-weights
Thank the Sierra Club who unbelievably puts this in their press release: (PDF)
“1.6 million pounds of lead from wheel weights is left falling off of cars each year where anyone can find and possibly ingest it,” said Jeff Gearhart, Research Director for the Ecology Center.
Yeah, those people sitting by the side of the road looking for lead weights to eat is a real problem, yesssiree. Too late for California though, a ban is already in effect. Full disclosure: I’m a scofflaw. I have lead wheel weights on my car.
Next I think we should ban dirt. Really, it’s full of nasty stuff just sitting around where anyone can find and possibly ingest it.
From the CDC:
How dangerous is eating dirt? My mother was pretty certain about this—damn dangerous. Soils contaminated by industrial or human pollutants pose considerable threat to anyone who eats them. Reports abound of lead poisoning and other toxicities in children eating contaminated soils. Similarly, we do not have to look farther than the last refugee camp or the slums of Calcutta or Tijuana or Basra to find the dangers of soils contaminated with untreated human waste. But the inherent biologic danger of soil is difficult to assess. Soil unaffected by the pressures of overpopulation, industry, and agriculture may be vastly different from the soil most of us encounter routinely.
Yeah ban dirt, that’s the ticket.
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Bullets have been known to kill animals. That’s why hunters use them.
So CO2 is banned but Lead, hey that’s stuff is good for you!
The insanity of this is that the green types like wind turbines that slice and dice birds but don’t like lead shot.
Maybe this is a subtle admonition of the EPA from the green gang to get the lead out. They have become rather devious of late.
Yep, nothing like deep fried wheel weights. They go real good with truck tire tread, all washed down with nicely aged hi-octane. 🙂
“EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.”
You just can’t make stuff like this up!!!! Who needs the comedy channel!
All the best….. Jeff
I can’t see what the controversy is: Lead bullets do definitely pose a danger for wildlife.
…however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.
I can help them out with this one…I’ve demonstrated via carefully controlled laboratory tests that 170 grains of lead is extremely unhealthy for whitetail deer. If they would like more detail, I’d be happy to accept a large grant to continue my research.
As a user of lead (trap shooter), the stuff is to costly to leave laying around. Gun clubs get a lead recovery firm in about once a year to go through the upper layer of the soil and recover the shot. Other clubs that neglected recover for years and instead plowed the ground are now going down a foot or two in order to recover the deeper lead. The recovered lead is more or less intact and is often sold to reloaders as is for reuse. The remainder is melted and reused for those who would like to make sure their shot is round.
The dirty little secret is that many shot guns are unable to use steel shot without damage to the gun. These guns cost between 6 and 12 thousand dollars. Other options to replace lead are far more costly than lead and may be good for hunting but not for target shooters where using 300 shells a day.
The strange part is often there is more wild life at the gun club than there is in the surrounding area. To injure an animal without the gun clubs permission could result in not being permitted to shoot registered targets and the open areas make it easy for predators to see prey make gun clubs a very welcome place for wildlife.
A few years ago , I was reading a post on a shooting blog which dealt with this . A skeet/trap club was concerned about a potential ban on lead shot and had a laboratory test the soil around the facility . It turned out that the soil around the club was well within the acceptable limits , but a test of the dirt along the county road that led to the club was highly contaminated . It seems that the roadside dirt had been contaminated from car exhaust over the many years that lead was added to gasoline . Tire weights did fit into the picture . Solid lead really isn’t much of a problem .
lol, my wife won’t let me read her anymore of this insanity!!!! To much craziness for her!!! You know, does it occur to anyone else but me that there is a high probability of someone in the Sierra club or the Ecology Center that actually ate(ingested) some tire weights to determine it might be hazardous.
“Next I think we should ban dirt. Really, it’s full of nasty stuff just sitting around where anyone can find and possibly ingest it.”
Obviously, we can’t ban dirt, that would be like banning CO2, so we should regulate and tax the producers of dirt!!!
We’ve gone from a government that’s there to protect each person from the other 310 million nut cases out there, to a government that’ll tell you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, assuming, of course, that they’ll permit you to do it (permits sold separately).
Umm…… the NRA doesn’t suffer fools…. and every politician knows it.
Now we need to teach them about tax and……….what ever they are calling it.
wow, that was swift and unexpected.
obama has steered remarkably clear of any issue remotely 2nd amendment
Lead in ammunition is dangerous when used in an inside target range. Enough of it makes it into the air that if you are in the range for significant lengths of time, e.g. a firearms instructor in the military, you can inhale enough to actually effect you if you do not filter the air. That is why all responsible indoor ranges have air filtration units to remove any of the lead dust that is created on the range. My sportsman’s club has such a setup. For trap shooting, it is an open question as to what the effect of the lead shot is on the ground. Many places have gone over to bismuth shot for actual hunting to prevent the waterfowl from eating the lead shot. But for the rest of rifle and pistol, it really does not matter. Lead is like aluminum. It forms an oxide coating that prevents further release of the metal into the environment. You can get some ball shot that was used in the civil war and if you so desire scar it with a knife. You will find nice bright metallic lead under the oxide coating. Lead is a hazard when it is chemically combined with other materials to make paints, used as tetraethyl lead (now banned for many years) and other such uses or when you create fumes from melting it to form stuff if you are not careful. But as for bullets, you gotta be kidding me. On general principles, I would not want to build a housing project on an old firing range. Kids are kids and everything goes into the mouth. When you consider the amount of lead bullets around in Europe after 2 world wars, if lead in the bullets was a hazard, all of Europe would have been long since dead. Although thinking about it, it may explain how they have become brain damaged enough to buy off on the AGW hype.
Why stop at dirt? Surely dangerous fruits and nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashews, apples, apricots and peaches all known to contain poisons such as arsenic and prussic acid (hydrocyanic acid) should also be banned.
I can understand the problem with lead shot building up in wetlands a result to hunting. That said, most of the remainder of this kind of stuff is simply someone attempting to tell me how I should live. Tell someone who cares. I have no interest in living my life by some advocacy groups standards, since I have enough to do meeting my own. It is a nice day here in Calgary so I’ll go sit in my back yard, naked and smoke my pipe and have a nice glass of whiskey, while I get my lead sinkers ready for some late summer fishing.
“This petition, which was submitted to EPA at the beginning of this month, is one of hundreds of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year.”
Wow. Those groups have a lot of nerve, swamping a bunch of poor bureaucrats with all those legally allowed requests. What are they trying to do, be vexatious or something?
In a moment of clarity, the EPA doesn’t ban something.
It’s sad when it’s newsworthy that the EPA didn’t take any action. Must be an election approaching.
Don’t laugh about the dirt. They have every intention of regulating it.
http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12899662
The NRA lobby is more important than the enviro wacko lobby. Get the NRA to start campaigning against any sort of energy bill and bingo, away it goes!! After all, when one fires a gun, some sort of carbon has to be released. The next thing you know, the enviro wackos are trying to slap controls on guns to “save the world”. We’ve found a pressure point!!
And Anthony, I laughed whole hardheartedly when I read about the lead weights. Thank you very much.
Whatever happened to mothers who keep gardens and told us, “We must all eat a peck of dirt before we die”?
The NRA lobby is more important than the enviro wacko lobby.
Which is why you didn’t hear about gun control while the Obamanites were in the process of transforming America. After the election, you will see some major gun bashing as they work to rally the lefty troops back into the fight.
Anthony Watts says:
“Yeah, those people sitting by the side of the road looking for lead weights to eat is a real problem, yesssiree.”
…
“Yeah ban dirt, that’s the ticket.”
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ROFLOL — thanks, I needed a laugh — have a great weekend!
PS Can’t we just ban the Sierra Club and call it a day?