Plans to issue warning over game meat risks delayed
There is no doubt that hunting is a key economic component of some deep rural economies. It radically divides opinion and this story gives an interesting new slightly different twist to the commonly rehearsed arguments for and against it. It tells us:
The Food Standards Agency has suspended plans to warn pregnant women and young children about the health risks of eating game shot with lead ammunition, prompting confusion and dismay among campaigners.
The agency, which issues official guidance to consumers, had been expected to issue a statement on Wednesday warning vulnerable groups against eating game such as deer, grouse, pheasant and boar killed with lead shot.
It was also expected to advise other adults who regularly ate wild game shot with lead pellets to cut their consumption to avoid serious lead poisoning.
The lead ammunition group, the government’s advisory panel, decided on Tuesday to release the guidance, but that decision has been overturned. Sources close to the panel said no clear reason had been given.
The panel – which includes the UK’s main shooting and conservation bodies such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT), the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, and the Countryside Alliance – had been investigating the issue since its inception in 2009.
Debbie Pain, conservation director of WWT and an authority on lead shot in game birds, who has played a key role in formulating the advice to consumers, said: “They’ve now said they’re delaying publication but I don’t know what that means. Is it a week or a month? I have no idea at all.”