“If you have the misfortune of being shot,” says retired U.S. or imported into the country each year, 95% are made with lead components, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun trade group. Of the 9 billion ammunition rounds produced in the U.S. This ensures maximum damage when a target is hit. The material is also heavy and dense, Helms says, which helps bullets maintain consistent trajectories as opposed to those made with copper. put the national spotlight back on lead in 2014 when the city’s water supply became contaminated with it after officials switched water sources.īecause lead is common and inexpensive, it has long been the metal of choice for product manufacturers in many industries, including ammunition, says Michael Helms, a firearms historian in Baton Rouge, La. In 1996, the federal government went a step further, prohibiting the sale of leaded fuel. banned consumer uses of paint containing lead. “Embedded lead from ammunition poses significant toxic concerns.”ĭecades of research into the effects of lead-tainted paint, fuel and drinking water have shown its devastating impact on humans and forced policy changes.
While studying the effects of lead toxicity in California condors-one of the world’s largest birds threatened with extinction-the researchers found the creatures were dying in droves or being severely sickened from lead poison, primarily by eating the carcasses of animals that had been shot with lead ammunition, but also by being shot with lead bullets themselves. There’s no doubt about that,” says Donald Smith, a professor of toxicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose research team helped the state ban the use of lead ammunition by hunters. “There’s clearly sufficient research that substantiates cause for concern. In Michigan, where the Flint water crisis created a heightened awareness of the dangers of lead, nearly 60 shooting victims tested positive for lead toxicity from bullets between 20, the most recent year with data, health officials said. During that time period, more than 200 people in California tested positive for elevated blood lead levels from retained bullet fragments, as did 28 people in Missouri, according to the states’ health departments. In at least 12 ABLES states that do track different lead exposure sources, roughly 300 people tested positive for elevated lead levels from retained bullet fragments between 20, according to data obtained by TIME. There is no evidence the exposure has slowed. “The biggest unanswered question,” Weiss says, “is whether the number of cases is increasing, becoming a trend.” When it restored funding in 2015, only 26 states were part of the program, according to the CDC. Since it released the report, the CDC has stopped studying the issue-citing a drop in the number of states willing to submit sufficient information-and the federal government eliminated the program’s funding in 2013. It’s even harder to collect such data today. California on July 1 will become the first state to ban lead hunting bullets, the culmination of a yearslong battle that pitted environmentalists against the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups. The metal’s toxicity is well-documented, but only wildlife have so far benefitted from efforts to outlaw its use in bullets, and even those results have been limited. Now, with his blood lead levels seven times higher than what is considered safe, Goddard faces long-term health risks, including neurological problems, kidney dysfunction and reproductive issues. Because the fragments did not pose life-threatening risks, trauma surgeons left them in his body-a common and widely accepted practice in emergency rooms throughout the United States.
When he was shot in his French class that spring day, one bullet pierced his right shoulder cleanly, but three others shattered when they hit his hips and left knee. Like hundreds and possibly thousands of shooting survivors across the country, Goddard, a 33-year-old father of two, is suffering a lesser-known and often unrecognized side effect of gun violence: lead poisoning.
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