Lead poisoning of waterfowl is neither a new disease nor a subject without controversy. The use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting within the United States has been prohibited and efforts are underway to ban the use of lead fishing sinkers and prohibit the use of lead shot for nonwaterfowl hunting. The first documented reports within the United States of lead-poisoned waterfowl were from Texas in 1874. Numerous other reports and studies added to those findings during the years and decades that followed. However, strong opposition to nontoxic shot requirements prevented full implementation of them until 1991. A full transition to nontoxic shot shells for all hunting and to nontoxic fishing sinkers and jig heads for fishing within the United States will not happen easily. The continued use of lead shot and lead fishing weights and the large amounts of these materials previously deposited in environments where birds feed assure that lead poisoning will remain a common bird disease for some time.
