Hunters use lead ammunition to kill and wound animals. The lead fragments in their bodies and contaminates their meat and causes many effects when consumed. Human activity directly contributes to the problem by being the ones to shoot the bullets that remain in carcasses. This environmental problem isn't changing much over time, but there is more awareness now than ever due to the articles published. However, lead doesn't degrade or become less toxic over time, so the effects of lead are still being in motion.

Effects

Lead is a toxic substance that fragments into hundreds of tiny pieces. This affects both wildlife and humans through consumption of the animals. Lead is poisonous and causes many effects, like brain damage, high blood pressure, and anemia. The long term environmental effects of this problem is the lead actively moving through the food chain and staying toxic while being in the bodies of both animals and humans. Groups of people that eat a lot of meat, especially ground meat, are likely more exposed to lead poisoning.

Evidence

Lead is poisonous and the fragments that are shot into animals remain in their bodies. 34% of randomly selected packages of ground venison contained metal fragments. When fed the meat with lead fragments to pigs, the pigs blood levels became elevated with two days of ingestion. An article published in September 24, 2019 by nps.gov titled Lead Bullet Risks for Wildlife & Humans explains how Lead Bullets have a huge negative impact on condors and other wildlife.

Public Awareness

There are many articles from national sources about this problem, which means it's a well known environmental problem. There is a HISTORY channel documentary about lead bullets. This issue deserves worldwide attention because it affects everyone, humans and animals. If everyone knew the effects of lead, then people would make a bigger effort to keep ecosystems and health safer by using non-lead bullets. People can be more aware of this issue if we spread the truth about why using non-lead bullets is more beneficial and then people would stop buying them and using them.

Solutions

The only solution to this issue is to stop buying and using lead bullets. Using lead bullets negatively impacts everyone and we should be spreading awareness about the dangers and harms of lead bullets.