41
The minimum numbers shown in Table 3 indicate that thousands
of UK children from the shooting community may have gamebird
meal intakes exceeding those required to be at potential risk from
incurring the critical responses for IQ and SATs scores. Maximum
numbers of adults from the shooting community estimated to exceed
threshold intake rates for potential risk from incurring cardiovascular,
nephrotoxicity and spontaneous abortion critical responses tended to
be much smaller, ranging between zero and hundreds or thousands.
As was the case for the maxima in Table 2, the exception was for the
chronic kidney disease critical response from the dose-response
model used by EFSA (2010). The same comment applies to this result
as was made for the maxima.
CONCLUSIONS
People in the UK can be exposed to lead from ammunition principally
by ingestion of dietary lead derived from small fragments of lead shot
or bullets in game meat and the absorption of lead in the alimentary
tract. Mean lead concentrations inmeat fromboth large and small game
animals shot with lead ammunition are often elevated, and frequently
considerably elevated above the levels considered acceptable for
meat derived from the muscle tissue of non-game animals. Some
ammunition-derived dietary lead from the tissues of game animals
ingested by humans is absorbed in the alimentary tract and enters the
bloodstream. The absolute bioavailability of ammunition-derived lead
may be lower than that of lead in the general diet, but the extent to
which this is the case is unclear. However, the minimum plausible value
of absolute bioavailability of ammunition-derived lead is substantial
and capable of causing elevation of blood lead concentrations thorough
absorption of ammunition-derived dietary lead.
At least one million people in the UK consume wild game at least once
per year and surveys indicate that at least tens of thousands of people
from the shooting community are high-level consumers of wild-shot
game. The mean frequency of consumption of game meat by these
high-level consumers may exceed one game meat meal per week,
averaged over a whole year. There may be some high-level consumers
outside the shooting community who are not included in these
estimates. Many more people consume game less frequently.
There is no known requirement for lead by humans and no evidence for
a threshold of exposure such as dietary intake rate or of blood lead level
below which lead-induced negative health effects, such as increased
systolic blood pressure, risk of chronic kidney disease and reduction in
IQ score, can be considered to be completely absent.
Our calculations of minimum and maximum numbers of people in the
UK exceeding threshold intake rates of gamebird meat required to be
at potential risk of incurring the critical health effects identified by EFSA
(2010) and Green and Pain (2012) indicate that children are likely to be
the most numerous group vulnerable to negative effects on cognitive
development fromexposure to ammunition-derived lead. It is estimated
that thousands of children in the UK (calculated to be in the range 4,000
- 48,000) could be at potential risk of incurring a one point or more
reduction in IQ as a result of current levels of exposure to ammunition-
derived dietary lead. Numbers of adults potentially vulnerable to critical
health effects appear to be smaller, but the available data are too sparse
to be certain.
In accord with these conclusions, the UK Food Standards Agency
(FSA 2012) have advised that frequent consumers of game shot with
lead ammunition should eat less of this type of meat, and that this is
especially important in the case of toddlers and children, pregnant
women andwomen trying for a baby, because of the harm that lead can
cause to the brain and developing nervous system. This is consistent
with recent advice given following risk assessments by equivalent
agencies in a range of other European countries who consider that
these most vulnerable groups should eat little or no game shot with
lead ammunition (Germany, Spain, Sweden and Norway, see Knutsen
et al. 2015).
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UK human health risks from ammunition-derived lead