High human exposure to lead through consumption of birds hunted with lead shot

We assess lead contamination of Greenland seabirds killed with lead shot having studied thick-billed murre and common eider, the two most important species in the diet. The lead concentration is very high in meat of ciders killed with lead shot (mean 6.1 mug/g-wet wt 95% CL 2.1-12). This level is about 44 times higher than in drowned ciders and eight times higher than in shot murres. Analyzing whole breasts instead of sub-samples reveals about seven times higher lead levels in birds' meat. We conclude that in some cases the lead intake by Greenland bird eaters will largely exceed the FAO/WHO tolerable lead intake guideline and that lead shot is a more important source of lead in the diet than previously estimated. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.