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.
I fear I am not internally consistent on this issue. I feel bad every time I lose a hook on a submerged stump or something, and my lead sinker pollutes the environment. The non-lead sinkers just don’t seem to work as well, though.
On the other hand, I don’t feel bad at all about leaving the lead from a bullet wherever it lodges.
I don’t normally shoot fish, though.
The Environmental Protection Agency should ban Dihydrogen Monoxide, which is the most potent greenhouse gas by far, and completely swamps the tiny effect of CO2:
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
Maybe we can save the lead and use the depleted uranium like the army?
Should work, can’t be as toxic as CO2 is?
Regarding my earlier post – tire weight did NOT fit into the picture . Sorry….
Off topic:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100827/full/news.2010.437.html
This is a sad state of affairs, everything boils down to votes and politics….
Entirely too close to Nov to rock all those boats now. Ram it through, never let a good crisis go to waste, unless it’s time to vote.
Don’t kid yourselves, if these clowns win again you can kiss your shot and sinkers good bye in January.
K says:
August 27, 2010 at 5:04 pm
The NRA lobby is more important than the enviro wacko lobby.
Much better armed also. 🙂 Actually the NSSF was more involved in this than the NRA. They represent over 5500 manufacturers, distributors, etc. http://www.nssf.org/Industry/
“Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 5,500 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers.”
Check out their Board of Governors: A who’s who of major arms manufacturers’. S&W, Ruger, Taurus, Remington, Winchester, Colt, Glock, Beretta etc. This petition didn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of getting anyplace.
Some people want to ban the lead for bullets because it’s bad for the wildlife and environment. Meanwhile the Nuclear Power industry give their used uranium to the weapons producers to make Depleted Uranium Armour Piercing shells. These are so effective but unfortunately leave behind hazards that make lead look as dangerous as strawberries and cream.
The NRA warned about this during the election, and The Huff Post printed their usual lies in Obama’s defense.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-c-rose/nra-lies-about-obamas-pos_b_128499.html
Somehow I don’t think the police are going to be happy about widespread availability of steel core ammo.
The EPA didn’t ban it because they didn’t have the authority. If they did…….
As far as fishing weights, Environment Canada has already banned lead in federal parks and they are working on a complete ban Canada wide. There is no substitute for lead in bullets for rifles and hand guns. Bisimuth might work but there isn’t enough in existance.
On a final note I am certain that lead bullets are harmful to wildlife. My freezer is full of evidence of this fact 😉
As far as banning dirt. When I was a youngin’ they saying was ‘a dirty kid is ahealthy kid’. All these kids being brought up in sterile accident free environments today are doomed.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKB8rmSsl4Y]
I make a killer road kill chili. So that is why it is lumpy. we scoop up wheel weights.
Yeah, those people sitting by the side of the road looking for lead weights to eat is a real problem, yesssiree.
Well, if I figure it correctly enough, there’s a significant contingent of those lead weight consumers from California land, who’ve moved to Seattle and environs, and they currently infest our public schools and offices — both elected and appointed.
Of course, there’s also that other contingent from the U.S. east coast who’ve suffered that lead weight brain damage as well, and who’ve move here, foisting their harebrained socialistic schemes upon the rest of us.
I don’t know what it is about western Washington, in that it seems to attract all the brain-dead zombies …
Must be all that lead content which causes them to migrate as a result of the Earth’s spin. But that doesn’t explain California …
Maybe it’s Canada’s socialistic pull which causes them to get here, but then they realize that not even the Great White North wants them!!!
Sure wish they’d find the Pacific ocean and float on towards China where they’d surely be more appreciated!!
Lead is radioactive for the EPA…
Is anyone petitioning for the removal or restrictions of Mercury from domestic lighting sources on public health grounds?
In the part of Scotland I live in, glass is no longer to be collected as domestic refuse ie it can’t, on Health and Safety grounds, be disposed of other than centrally!
Certainly there are “bottle-banks” if you’re mobile enough to get to one. But bottles make up only a portion of glass containers so I guess we’ll have dirty jam jars, light bulbs and the like disposed of haphazardly rather than managed effectively.
Apart from the short-term effects of more broken glass lying around, cheaper for some to dump at street level than risk a fine by binning it, we can look forward to the environmental effects of enhanced levels of Hg thanks to the gradual outlawing of incandescent bulbs.
A little learning is a dangerous thing!
Gold and platinum have physical properties very similar to those of lead. Obviously they are poor choices as a substitute for lead in bullets or in wheel balancing. I haven’t checked the BATF poop sheet lately but I’m reasonably certain that tungsten or tungsten/tin alloys would be prohibited due to their “armor piercing” capabilities. We know steel or steel core bullets are already outlawed. Bismuth might do in a pinch as a replacement for lead shot, but it is unacceptable as a high velocity handgun or rifle bullet.
But let’s wonder for a moment…suppose all lead ammunition were banned tomorrow. Does anyone honestly think there would be a measurable attenuation in environmental lead levels 3-5 years from now? Of course not!
I was surprised to hear about the lead weights for wheel balancing. This has been one of my favorite arguments for years and I never heard it anywhere else. About 3-4 years ago I bought 50 lbs of lead (melted and poured into muffin tins) on eBay. The guy selling it worked at a tire shop and saved all used lead weights, melted them down and sold them on eBay. I can’t tell you how handy this shoe box of lead “muffins” has been around my workshop. I keep it near my 2 kg bottle of elemental mercury.
I think the banning of lead has more to do with the consumption of shot by water fowl.
I’ve read were far more animals dye from lead poisoning then are ever killed by hunters.
Well just wth element on the periodic table does the EPA like?
Oh right, Mercury in CFLs. I forgot.
So if we eliminate 1.6 million pounds of lead weights and do nothing to keep the new improved weights on the wheels, we will lose 1.6 million pounds of some other less dense so much larger, heavy stuff. Tires won’t magically need less weight to be in balance, and lead is the king of affordable dense. Replace the lead with any other metal and you have ballistic objects that will puncture the tires they’re supposed to protect.
Can you imagine how much shrapnel is going to be flying around? Lead, at least, is malleable and will not bend into a boomerang and prang down the road every time the family Prius rolls over it.
One last question: Where are all the dead bodies created by indiscriminate lead weight ingestion? Surely over my own 64 years the piles of lead accumulated in the gutters must be capable of generating data – I’ll even accept a 1200 km square grid analysis.
It is a backdoor attack on the US Constitution. Unable to get a ban through the congress on ammuition and guns they intend to do it by regulation and bypass the people. It nothing short of dictatorial exercise of power.
Dennis Nikols, P. Geol. says:
August 27, 2010 at 4:49 pm
“….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.”
A little off topic, but Dennis, when I lived and worked in Calgary (in 1962), they had a bylaw that prohibited hanging out men’s and women’s underwear on the same clothesline. You sure came a long way in cow-town.
For those thinking the NRA is all roses and sunshine, http://www.nationalgunrights.org/images/DISCLOSE%20Cartoon.jpg
They have their own reckoning coming.
break out the depleted uranium shells…
If the NRA continues their course, they will be the equivalent to the AARP speaking for the elderly.