Venison a la plomb

Deer hunting season is over in the West. And if you were a good aim, your freezer is chock full of venison–looking a lot like the meat section at Costco. But be warned, new research suggests that eating game shot with lead bullets may expose you and your family to lead, a poisonous heavy metal. A large federal study recently discovered that deer hunters and their families have, on average, 66 percent more lead in their bloodstream. And although none of the participants in the study had blood lead levels high enough to be considered poisonous, experts are still concerned. The lead-exposure-via-wild-venison connection was brought to attention by Dr. William Cornatzer, a long time hunter, Peregrine Fund member, and professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. After attending a Peregrine Fund meeting about the California condor –a bird whose populations suffered in part from eating lead-riddled animal carcasses–Cornatzer theorized that humans, just like the condor, are exposed to lead by eating wild deer shot with lead bullets.