"Lead is a persistent and highly toxic substance that can cause
a range of environmental and health problems," Bush said in a statement.
"It has an especially harmful impact on the health of children and infants."
—The Washington Post, April 18, 2001
WASHINGTON, DC—The Violence Policy Center (VPC) and the Environmental
Working Group (EWG) today released Poisonous
Pastime: The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges and Lead to Children, Families,
and the Environment. The 71-page study documents how shooting
ranges are poisoning children and polluting the environment with lead,
yet remain almost entirely unregulated—exempt from even the Bush Administration's
new lead pollution reporting rules.
Poisonous Pastime documents
how parents often put their own children at risk because they do not know
that their visits to the local shooting range can result in lead poisoning
of their children at home. Lead poisoning is known to cause terribly debilitating
and sometimes fatal effects on children and adults.
"There is no question that the toxic levels of lead at shooting ranges
are endangering America's children and families," VPC Senior Policy Analyst
and report author Tom Diaz said today. "No amount of lead exposure is
known to be completely safe for a child. Poisonous
Pastime reveals for the first time that the gun industry—through
toxic and unregulated ranges—is sacrificing the health of our children
for profit."
Poisonous Pastime details
how outdoor firing ranges put more lead into the environment than nearly
any other major industrial sector in the U.S., yet they remain almost
entirely unregulated. In just two years a typical outdoor firing range
can have lead contamination equivalent to a five-acre Superfund site.
The study reveals how school administrators throughout the country were
oblivious to the dangers of lead—from school shooting ranges—until students
were found to have elevated blood levels.
"Every one of the 1,800 firing ranges in the U.S. represents a piece
of land so highly contaminated with lead that it would require a massive
clean-up effort to be safe for wildlife or any industrial or residential
use," said EWG Research Director Jane Houlihan.
Poisonous Pastime finds
that the shooting range industry downplays the seriousness of its problems,
hides them from the general public, and allow thousands of unregulated
shooting sites to continue to operate without strict oversight. It is
based largely on the records of internal industry meetings and gun industry
publications. The report includes recommendations at both local and federal
levels.
