Italian Federation of Hunting, as well as FACE Europe, is not a priori opposed to the prohibition of the use of lead in wet areas, but surely we are firmly opposed to any kind of exploitation of this delicate issue carried out with the aim of placing new constraints on hunting, perhaps supporting its unjustified extension to the whole territory.
This is what was proposed again in recent days by WWF Italy - and uncritically taken up by some sources of information - passing off the usual anti-hunt propaganda as scientific information. In the document in question, simple speculations are given as established facts, starting from the supposed "millions of dead birds" which, as usual, are shaken like a bogeyman. In reality, not only is it not proven, but the risk - mostly limited to waterfowl - is not quantifiable in these simplistic terms. Likewise, speaking of the risk to human health due to the spread of lead contained in the cartridges into the environment, as well as of pollution to the aquifers in the way it is presented by the WWF, has no scientific significance.
First of all, it would be necessary to know the concentration of lead present in water and in soils not affected by hunting pellets to establish an environmental background value, as well as considering that the dispersion of lead on water and in the ground occurs through different sources, of which the most small is precisely that caused by the shot from the cartridges. For the latter there is an exaggerated overestimation of the cartridges fired in Italy - especially in wetlands, already largely linked to the use of alternative ammunition - and therefore of the lead dispersed in the environment. There is also a lack of careful consideration regarding which and how many sources of lead enter the food chain, both human and animal. For example, does the WWF know that with the introduction of unleaded petrol (without Pb tetraethyl as an anti-knock agent) the levels of lead in the blood have more than halved?
And that specific research carried out at European level on hunters and their families who eat meat from game shot with traditional ammunition has not revealed a significant deviation in the presence of lead in the organism with respect to the average population? In short, beyond unjustified alarmism, crude calculations, approximate and tendentious preconceptions, we are faced with the usual WWF press release made for propaganda purposes, ignoring the most elementary rules of communication we do not want to say scientific, but not even correct. The WWF shoots them big to create a sensation on public opinion, often omitting scientific evidence, certainly obtaining excellent publicity, but doing a bad service both to citizens and to the nature it claims to defend.