Warnings of lead in venison irk hunters ..........

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press WriterSat Mar 29, 5:32 AM ET
Thousands of pounds of venison donated to food pantries this year has become a contentious gift in three states.
Officials in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa warn that the meat could be contaminated by lead from bullets. Hunting groups are calling it an overreaction.
"It's alarmist and not supported by any science," said Lawrence Keane, a vice president and lawyer for the Newton, Conn.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. "High quality protein is now taken out of the mouths of needy, hungry people."
North Dakota health officials on Wednesday told food pantries in the state to throw out donated venison, saying it may have lead fragments. Officials in Minnesota and Iowa followed with similar alerts, asking that venison in those states not be distributed.
Gov. John Hoeven said the alerts were issued as a precaution. He said the state has a "tremendous working relationship" with hunters, and the questions raised about venison are new.
Safari Club International's Sportsmen Against Hunger program donated 317,000 pounds of venison last year to the needy, said Doug Burdin, a lawyer for the Tucson, Ariz.-based group. The meat donated by hunters was enough for more than 1.2 million meals, he said.
"It's provided a lot of free meals to a lot of people," Burdin said. "Hunters are doing something they love and helping others at the same time. This is disheartening, and we certainly don't think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here."
Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries.
"This isn't just a food pantry problem. This is a nationwide problem," Cornatzer said Friday.
Hunters have alternatives to lead, he said. "I'm a big hunter. I've already purchased four boxes of copper bullets to next year," Cornatzer said.
The North Dakota Community Action Partnership distributed 17,000 pounds of venison from 381 donated deer after last year's hunting season, a number that has tripled since the program began in North Dakota in 2004, executive director Ann Pollert said. At least 4,000 pounds of venison were in food pantries in the state when the health department issued its warning, she said.
The state has about 45 food pantries, and surveys have shown a need for more than 70,000 pounds of venison annually, Poller said. She hopes people will donate other types of meat.
"Meat is so expensive," she said. "This is going to have an impact — it's a quality, lean meat protein source that we're losing."
Jason Foss, president of Minot-based Pheasants for the Future, said hunters from his group donated about 100 deer this year to the program. He believes the issue of lead-contaminated meat is "a little extreme at this point."
"Sportsmen have been shooting deer for hundreds of years with lead bullets with no problems," he said. "I hope this program keeps rolling along because so much good comes out of it."
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National Shooting Sports Foundation: http://www.nssf.org
Montana's poor still get game meat
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
Although North Dakota health officials have recommended that ground venison be pulled from food pantry shelves across the state over concern about possible lead contamination, Montana officials and food program managers are not concerned.

North Dakota issued an advisory Wednesday noting that some hunter-donated ground venison had tested positive for lead, possibly from lead bullets fragmenting upon impact. An estimated 17,000 pounds of venison was donated to about 45 North Dakota food pantries this hunting season through the state's Sportsmen Against Hunger program. In the wake of the announcement, Minnesota has announced that it will stop distributing hunter-donated meat through its food pantries.

"At this time, we do not know if lead particles in wild game are a significant health issue in North Dakota," said Sandi Washek, lead program coordinator for the North Dakota Department of Health in a news release, "but because of the seriousness of lead poisoning, especially for children and pregnant women, we are taking precautionary measures by recommending that food pantries not distribute the ground venison remaining in their possession."

Montana officials are taking a more cautious stance.

"We are not making any similar recommendations here," said Jan Stetzer, lead poisoning prevention program coordinator for the state. "We have nothing to support that action in Montana and no reason to believe we have such a problem. Without any more information, it could be an isolated processing issue."

Sheryle Shandy, director of The Billings Food Bank, said she's not concerned about the nearly 5,000 pounds of meat donated by hunters and Fish, Wildlife and Parks to the local facility.

"We know where ours is processed," she said. "We use USDA-inspected facilities. We're just really lucky that we have reliable sources."

Washek, who is a hunter, said initial information presented to her about the possibility of lead contamination in game meat gave her pause. She butchers her own game very carefully, but has her sausage made at a meat processor. Despite the state's positive test, she's not throwing her game meat out.

"I'm very comfortable with what my processor does," she said, adding that individual hunters will have to decide for themselves whether to eat their game meat. She said her agency wouldn't advise other states to follow its action, although it notified them of their findings.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation issued a statement Friday saying there is "no peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support the unfortunate and unnecessary overreaction by North Dakota health officials. ... The state is needlessly creating a scare upon hunters that has no basis in science. We strongly urge North Dakota health officials to reconsider their actions."

The possibility of a problem was brought to the agency's attention by a Bismarck, N.D., doctor who examined his food pantry deer meat with a high-definition CT scanner. Sixty percent of the 100 pounds of meat scanned contained lead fragments, according to news reports. When the doctor took his evidence to the state health department, it followed up with its own tests.

The health department took 20 random samples of meat, Washek said, and found five fragments that were tested for lead. All tested positive by an independent laboratory. Of another 15 random samples, one tested positive for lead.

Washek said the decision to advise throwing the meat out was made after consultation with state agriculture and wildlife officials. More follow-up testing will be conducted. And she said the state is considering producing information on proper wild-game butchering.

"Do we plan on doing away with Sportsmen Against Hunger? Absolutely not," she said. "It's too much of a necessary program."

Sportsmen Against Hunger was founded by the Safari Club International Foundation and is active in 50 states, parts of Canada and other countries, according to the group's Web site. The club estimates that the program provides nearly 250 million meals annually.

In the past, lead contamination has been traced to older paints, soil, cosmetics, water and canned foods. Children 6 and under and pregnant women and their developing fetuses are most susceptible to lead poisoning as it builds up in the central nervous system and can cause developmental problems. Ten micrograms per deciliter of blood is considered a low-level contamination, with 70 micrograms per deciliter or greater considered severe.

Brett French can be contacted at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.