14
1979, the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) established a
Working Group with a wide membership of interested parties to
review the evidence.
The Working Group’s report was published in December 1981
(NCC 1981) and its recommendations were particularly aimed
at raising awareness within the angling community, and sought
to eliminate poisoning by voluntary approaches. A priority
recommendation however, was that:
“The Working Group would like to see the phasing out of split-
lead shot within five years” and that “We further recommend
that the Nature Conservancy Council should review the position
in 1984 to establish how far this programme [of voluntary
phase-out] has met with success. Should lead be found at that
time to be still widely in use then further consideration should be
given to securing the phasing-out of lead in angling.”
As subsequently for lead gunshot (below), a voluntary approach
proved ineffective, with continuing waterbird poisoning
occurring through the early 1980s. In April 1983, the Royal
Commission for Environmental Pollution recommended that:
“22. Urgent efforts should be made to develop alternatives to
lead shot and lead fishing weights.
23. As soon as these alternatives are available, the Government
should legislate to ban any further use of lead shot and fishing
weights in circumstances where they are irretrievably dispersed
in the environment.”
(RCEP 1983).
The government response to the Royal Commission was to
support these recommendations:
“The Government hope that a withdrawal of lead can be
achieved by voluntarymeans, but legislationwill be considered
if necessary.”
(Department of the Environment 1983).
Continuing public concern resulted in Parliamentary debate
(Hansard 1984). The NCC undertook a further review in January
1985 and estimated that up to 4,000 mute swans were still dying
annually from lead fishingweight ingestion (NCC 1985). Given this
further assessment, the UK government announced in July 1985
“that it would be prepared to introduce regulations to control
the sale and import of lead shot for fishing from January 1987 if
voluntary measures failed.”
(NCC 1985)
In due course, The Control of Pollution (Anglers’ Lead Weights)
Regulations 1986 (HMSO 1986) came into force on 1 January
1987 banning the import and supply of lead fishing weights
except dust shot (weighing<0.06g) and largeweights (>28.35g).
This, and the introduction of Regional Water Authority byelaws
the following year, greatly reduced waterbird exposure to lead
fishing weights and led to recovery of mute swan populations
(Rowell and Spray 2004). However, post-ban monitoring
between the mid 1990s and 2001 showed significant levels of
blood lead levels inmute swans in England attributed topossible
continued ingestion of long-discarded lead weights, illegal use
of lead weights or legally used dust shot (Perrins et al. 2003).
Regulation of lead
in ammunition
The history of the recognition of poisoning of wild birds through
the ingestion of spent lead shot is summarised by Pain et al.
(2015). Earliest regulatory steps to eliminate this risk were
undertaken in the USA, with progressive regulation from 1971
until 1991/92when a nationwide non-toxic shot requirement for
waterfowl hunting became effective (Morehouse 1992). Legal
challenges to these restrictions (six lawsuits and four appeals)
ultimately strengthened the federal government’s case to
regulate on this issue (Anderson 1992).
The convening of an international workshop by the International
Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB) in June 1991,
which brought together over 100 participants from21 countries,
was fundamental to giving focus to the issue and initiating
new policy initiatives within European countries. The detailed
recommendations from that meeting (Pain 1992) charted a
clear course to replace lead gunshot with non-toxic alternatives,
but also addressed the problematic issues of implementation
of such a policy, stressing the need to work with, and through,
interested stakeholders.
UK REGULATIONS CONCERNING USE OF LEAD GUN-
SHOT IN WETLANDS
The UK response to the IWRB initiative was to convene a
meeting of interested parties in September 1991 chaired
by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. This became
the Lead Shot in Wetland Areas Steering Group which met
annually for the next seven years. A Lead inWaterfowl Working
Group, chaired by Department of the Environment (DoE), was
established andmet up to four times a year until 1997 to advise
David A. Stroud