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Republican Says Petition to Ban Lead Bullets is ‘Attack on Rural America’ « The Washington Independent

Jul 31, 2020901 Shares225.3K Views
Republicans are crowing about a petition, submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by environmental and conservation groups, to ban the use of lead bullets and fishing sinkers because of their potential health effects.
EPA has opened the petition for public comment, though the agency does not appear to have weighed in on its validity. (A call to EPA for comment was not immediately returned.) In a statement, House Natural Resources Committee ranking Republican Doc Hastings (Wash.) says the effort is the latest “attack on rural America” by the Obama administration. According to Hastings:
This potential ban on lead bullets is another massive power grab by the EPA and the latest example of the Obama Administration’s assault on Rural America. Mandating non-lead bullets will greatly increase costs for hunters, sport shooters and fishermen and deal a devastating blow to the outdoor sportsmen and recreation industry during these difficult economic times. The EPA’s job-killing policies are threatening the livelihood of millions of Americans across the country.
The Center for Biological Diversity (as well as the American Bird Conservancy and others) filed a petition to EPA Aug. 3 asking the agency “to revise rules governing toxic substances to ban the manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of lead shot, bullets, and fishing sinkers.”
In the petition, they groups cite the potential negative health side effects of lead:
Based on information extending back to Roman times more than 2,000 years ago, lead has long been identified as a highly toxic substance with lethal properties and numerous pathological effects on living organisms. Health effects from lead exposure can run the gamut from acute, paralytic poisoning and seizures to subtle, long-term mental impairment, miscarriage and impotence.
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

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