The Enviromental Protection Agency which has as its mission “to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment — air, water and land — upon which life depends” has announced National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.  Great, right?  Too bad the EPA recently denied a request “by over 60 organizations and institutions nationwide to ban lead ammunition that causes massive poisoning of wildlife.”

Think this makes no sense?  Neither does Darin Schroeder, Vice President of Conservation Advocacy for American Bird Conservancy, who said, “If there was a prize offered somewhere for the most unabashed, ironic event of the year, this would have to be the winner. EPA has chosen to ignore the unregulated pumping of lead into the environment for sport in the face of mountains of scientific data that say we are poisoning millions of birds each year, and now is asking us to be mindful of the poisonous impacts of lead.”

More information at the American Bird Conservancy.

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.