November, 23 2010, 11:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity, (510)
499-9185
Anthony Prieto, Project Gutpile, (805) 729-5455
Karen Schambach, PEER, (530) 333-2545
Lawsuit Filed Over EPA Refusal to Address Lead Poisoning of Wildlife
Suit Seeks to Prevent Annual Deaths of Millions of Wild Birds, Wildlife From Toxic Lead in Ammunition, Fishing Gear
WASHINGTON
Conservation and hunting groups today sued the Environmental Protection
Agency for failing to regulate toxic lead that frequently poisons and kills
eagles, swans, cranes, loons, endangered California condors and other wildlife
throughout the country. The EPA recently denied a formal petition to ban
lead in fishing tackle and hunting ammunition despite long-established
science on the dangers of lead poisoning in the wild, which kills millions
of birds each year and also endangers public health.
"The
EPA has the ability to protect America's wildlife from
ongoing preventable lead poisoning, but continues to shirk its
responsibility," said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the
Center for Biological Diversity. "The EPA's failure to act is
astonishing given the mountain of scientific evidence about the dangers of
lead to wildlife. There are already safe and available alternatives to lead
products for hunting and fishing, and the EPA can phase in a changeover to
nontoxic materials, so there's no reason to perpetuate the epidemic
of lead poisoning of wildlife."
In
August, a coalition of groups formally petitioned the EPA to ban lead in
bullets and shot for hunting and in fishing tackle under the Toxic
Substances Control Act. The petition referenced nearly 500 peer-reviewed
scientific papers illustrating the widespread dangers of lead poisoning to
scavengers that eat lead ammunition fragments in carcasses, and to
waterfowl that ingest spent lead shot or lost lead fishing sinkers. The
groups filing the lawsuit today are the Center for Biological Diversity,
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Project Gutpile, a
hunters' organization. Since the original petition was filed, more
than 70 organizations in 27 states have voiced support for the lead ban,
including those representing veterinarians, birders, hunters, zoologists,
scientists, American Indian groups, physicians and public employees.
"Having
hunted in California
for 20 years I have seen firsthand lead poisoning impacts to wildlife from
toxicity through lead ammunition," said Anthony Prieto, a hunter and
cofounder of Project Gutpile, a hunters' group that provides
educational resources for lead-free hunters and anglers. "Although
many more sportsmen are now getting the lead out, the EPA must take action
to ensure we have a truly lead-free environment. It's time to make a
change to non-lead for ourselves and for future generations to enjoy
hunting and fishing with a conscience."
"Over
the past several decades Americans chose to get toxic lead out of our
gasoline, paint, water pipes and other sources that were poisoning people. Now
it's time to remove unnecessary lead from hunting and fishing sports
that is needlessly poisoning our fish and wildlife," said Karen
Schambach of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
"Today's action is a step to safeguard wildlife and reduce
human health risks posed by lead."
The
EPA denied the portion of the petition dealing with regulation of lead
ammunition based on an incorrect claim that the agency lacks the authority
to regulate toxic lead in ammunition. The EPA asserted that shells and
cartridges are excluded from the definition of "chemical
substances" in the Act. That claim is contradicted by the legislative
history of the Toxic Substances Control Act, which provides clear and
specific authority to regulate hazardous chemical components of ammunition
such as lead. Earlier this month the EPA also issued a final determination
denying the portion of the petition on fishing sinkers, even though the
agency itself had proposed banning certain lead fishing weights in 1994.
"The
EPA has known for years it has the authority to regulate lead," said
Miller. "Lead shot was eliminated in 1991 by federal regulation to
address widespread lead poisoning of ducks and secondary poisoning of bald
eagles. And in 1994, the EPA even proposed banning lead fishing weights
that were being eaten by waterfowl."
Hunters
and anglers in states that have restricted or banned lead shotgun
ammunition or lead fishing gear have already made successful transitions to
nontoxic alternatives, and fishing and hunting in those areas remains
active. Alternatives continue to be developed, including the U.S.
military's transition toward bullets made of non-lead materials.
"This
is clearly not an anti-hunting initiative, it is about using less toxic
materials for the sake of wildlife and our human health," said
Prieto. "When I hunt, I want to make sure I kill only my target
animal, and I want to use the least toxic ammunition possible since I will
be feeding the game to my family."
For
more information, read about the Center's Get the Lead Out campaign.
Read Frequently Asked Questions about
the lead ban petition.
View photo images and video of
wildlife poisoned by lead ammunition and sinkers.
The Center for
Biological Diversity (www.biologicaldiversity.org) is a national, nonprofit
conservation organization with more than 315,000 members and online
activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild
places.
Project
Gutpile is an educational organization comprised of hunters that provides
resources for lead-free hunters and anglers. Project Gutpile has been
promoting non-lead ammunition and raising lead awareness in the hunting
community since 2002.
Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a 10,000 member
national alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals
working to protect the environment. PEER members include government
scientists, land managers, environmental law enforcement agents, field
specialists, and other resource professionals committed to responsible
management of America's
public resources.
Background
Lead is an extremely toxic substance that is dangerous to people and
wildlife even at low levels. Exposure can cause a range of health effects,
from acute poisoning and death to long-term problems such as reduced
reproduction, inhibition of growth, and damage to neurological development.
Animals are poisoned when they scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated
with lead bullet fragments or pick up and eat spent lead shot pellets or
lost fishing weights, mistaking them for food or grit. Animals can die a
painful death from lead poisoning or suffer for years from its debilitating
effects.
Lead
ammunition also poses human-health risks since lead bullets explode and
break into minute particles in shot game and can spread throughout meat
that humans eat. Studies using radiographs show that numerous
imperceptible, dust-sized particles of lead can contaminate meat up to a
foot and a half away from the bullet track, causing a greater health risk
to people consuming lead-shot game than previously thought. A recent study
found that up to 87 percent of cooked game killed by lead ammunition can
contain unsafe levels of lead. Some state health agencies have had to
recall venison donated to feed the hungry because of lead contamination
from bullet fragments. Nearly 10 million hunters, their families and
low-income beneficiaries of venison donations may be at risk, as well as
the estimated 1 million or more people who manufacture lead fishing weights
in their homes, leading to inhalation of lead dust and fumes.
There
are now numerous commercially available, nontoxic alternatives to lead
rifle bullets, shotgun pellets and fishing weights. Nontoxic steel, copper
and alloy bullets and non-lead fishing tackle are readily available in all
50 states. More than a dozen manufacturers of bullets now market many
varieties of non-lead, nontoxic bullets and shot. The California Department
of Fish and Game has certified nontoxic ammunition from 24
manufacturers for hunting big-game and
non-game species in the range of the California condor. The Arizona Game
and Fish Department publishes a list of non-lead rifle
ammunition available for big-game hunters, including
120 bullets in various calibers produced by 13 ammunition manufacturers, as
well as seven manufacturers who provide custom-loaded nonlead rifle
ammunition. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service has approved 12 nontoxic shot types for
hunting waterfowl. At least 10 alternatives to lead fishing weights are now
available made from non-poisonous materials such as tin, bismuth, steel,
ceramics and recycled glass.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
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"The future of these earned benefit programs depends on who is elected this fall—both as president and to Congress," said one campaigner.
May 06, 2024
Advocacy groups, congressional Democrats, and U.S. President Joe Biden's reelection campaign on Monday pointed to new government reports on Medicare and Social Security as proof that the key programs must be protected from Republican attacks.
The annual trustee reports show that Social Security is projected to be fully funded until 2035, a year later than previously thought, while Medicare is expected to be fully funded until 2036, five years beyond the earlier projection.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to face Biden in November, "proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare every year he was in office, he's said repeatedly he would cut them, his allies openly plan to target them, and just this weekend he dismissed them as bribes," noted James Singer, a spokesperson for the Democrat's campaign.
"Let's be clear, Donald Trump will steal the hard-earned Social Security and Medicare benefits Americans have been paying into their entire lives and he'll use it to fund tax cuts for rich people like him," Singer warned. "President Biden keeps his promises. He has and will continue to protect Social Security and Medicare from MAGA Republican efforts to cut them—Donald Trump won't."
"No doubt we will hear cries from so-called 'fiscal conservatives' that Social Security is going 'bankrupt,' supposedly requiring Draconian measures—which couldn't be further than the truth."
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said Monday that "current and future American retirees should feel confident about both Medicare and Social Security, which [are] stronger due to the robust economy under President Biden. But the future of these earned benefit programs depends on who is elected this fall—both as president and to Congress."
Fiesta highlighted that Biden's latest budget "calls for strengthening" the programs whereas Trump recently said that "there is a lot you can do... in terms of cutting" them and "the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes around 80% of House Republicans, stands ready to make cuts as well."
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, similarly declared that "today's report shows that our Social Security system is benefiting from the Biden economy. Due to robust job growth, low unemployment, and rising wages, more people than ever are contributing to Social Security and earning its needed protections."
"That said, Congress should take action sooner rather than later to ensure that Social Security can pay full benefits for generations to come, along with expanding Social Security's modest benefits," she argued, noting various plans from Democrats in Congress that "are paid for by requiring millionaires and billionaires to contribute more of their fair share."
Unlike Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., "Republicans want to cut benefits despite overwhelming opposition from the American people," Altman said of federal lawmakers and the former president. Additionally, "Trump plans to sharply restrict immigration. This would harm Social Security by reducing the number of workers paying in."
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Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, also asserted that "Congress must act NOW to strengthen Social Security for the 67 million Americans who depend on it. We cannot afford to wait to take action until the trust fund is mere months from insolvency, as Congress did in 1983."
According to Richtman:
No doubt we will hear cries from so-called 'fiscal conservatives' that Social Security is going 'bankrupt,' supposedly requiring Draconian measures—which couldn't be further than the truth. Revenue always will flow into Social Security from workers' payroll contributions, so the program will never be 'broke.' But no one wants seniors to suffer an automatic 17% benefit cut in 2035, so Congress must act deliberately, but not recklessly. A bad deal driven by cuts to earned benefits could be worse than no deal at all.
We strongly support revenue-side solutions that would bring more money into the trust fund by demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) has offered legislation that would do just that—by maintaining the current payroll wage cap (currently set at $168,600), but subjecting wages $400,000 and above to payroll taxes, as well—and dedicating some of high earners' investment income to Social Security. Rep. Larson's bill also would provide seniors with a much-needed benefit boost.
Larson was among the lawmakers who responded to Monday's Social Security report by demanding urgent action. The Democrat also called out his Republican colleagues for pushing cuts and trying to "ram their dangerous plan through an undemocratic and unaccountable so-called 'fiscal commission,'" which critics have dubbed a "death panel."
"The Social Security 2100 Act is co-sponsored by nearly 200 House Democrats and would improve benefits across the board while extending solvency until 2066, while Donald Trump and House Republicans continue their calls to slash Americans' hard-earned benefits!" Larson said. "By contrast, President Joe Biden and Democrats are working to strengthen Social Security, not cut it."
Co-sponsors of Larson's bill include Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee.
"Social Security is the greatest anti-poverty program in history, and ensuring its solvency for future generations has been one of my top priorities in Congress," Boyle said Monday, promoting the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, his bill with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). "Unfortunately, while Democrats and President Biden want to protect Social Security and Medicare, Republicans have made clear they want to tear them down."
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"Why?" asked Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif. "Because killing Palestinians is more important for the Israeli government than saving Israelis."
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Israel on Monday launched long-awaited strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip despite Hamas publicly confirming it agreed to a cease-fire and hostage release proposal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The Israel Defense Forces said on social media that "the IDF is currently conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah," the city to which over a million Palestinians have fled since October 7, when Israel launched a retaliatory war that has already killed at least 34,735 people in Gaza and wounded another 78,108.
Earlier Monday, the IDF had dropped leaflets directing residents and refugees in that part of Rafah to relocate to a strip along Gaza's coast, ignoring warnings from the international community and humanitarian groups that a full-scale Israeli attack on the crowded city would further endanger civilians and relief efforts.
"It is obvious Netanyahu wants this genocidal war to continue indefinitely so that he can remain in power."
In addition to sparking outrage around the world, the Israeli government's Rafah attack and rejection of the Hamas-backed proposal was met with criticism from people across Israel. The Associated Pressreported that "thousands of Israelis rallied around the country Monday night calling for an immediate deal to release the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip."
Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset who was almost expelled by fellow Israeli lawmakers earlier this year for backing South Africa's ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), again called out his own government.
"Israeli tanks and infantry enter east Rafah while planes bomb from above, just hours after Hamas' decision to accept the hostages/prisoners exchange deal," Cassif said Monday. "Why? Because killing Palestinians is more important for the Israeli government than saving Israelis. War criminals!"
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that "the War Cabinet unanimously decided this evening Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war."
Along with the prime minister, Israel's War Cabinet includes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, former IDF chief of the general staff, along with three observers.
Netanyahu added that "while the Hamas proposal is far from meeting Israel's core demands, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel."
Reutersreported that "an Israeli official said the deal was not acceptable to Israel because terms had been 'softened.'"
According to the news outlet, the first part of a three-phase plan that Hamas—which has controlled Gaza for nearly two decades—agreed to includes a 42-day pause in fighting, the release of 33 hostages held by the group and some Palestinians in Israeli jails, a partial IDF withdrawal, and free movement in the besieged enclave.
Phase two would be "another 42-day period that features an agreement to restore a 'sustainable calm' to Gaza, language that an official briefed on the talks said Hamas and Israel had agreed in order to take discussion of a 'permanent cease-fire' off the table," Reuters detailed. This phase also includes withdrawing most Israeli troops and Hamas releasing some soldiers and reservists.
The third phase would involve the exchange of bodies; reconstruction of Gaza overseen by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations; and ending the complete blockade on the strip, the outlet added.
Shortly before Israel's Monday night strikes on Rafah began, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said that the U.N. chief "reiterates his pressing call to both the government of Israel and the leadership of Hamas to go the extra mile needed to make an agreement come true and stop the present suffering."
Expressing concern about the then-imminent Israeli operation in Rafah, the spokesperson said that "we are already seeing movements of people—many of these people are in desperate humanitarian condition and have been repeatedly displaced. They search safety that has been so many times denied. The secretary-general reminds the parties that the protection of civilians is paramount in international humanitarian law."
Other U.N. officials have been warning of what an assault on Rafah will mean for the over 1.4 million Palestinians there, among them 600,000 children. So have humanitarian and political leaders, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who on Monday urged President Joe Biden to stand by his earlier position that attacking the city was a "red line" and "end all offensive military aid to Israel."
Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad issued a similar call Monday evening, warning that "the Israeli government is hellbent on using American financial, military, and diplomatic support to ethnically cleanse what remains of Gaza and commit another massacre."
"President Biden must stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu and take concrete action to end the genocide now," Awad continued, nodding to the Israeli leader's legal trouble. The prime minister faces not only potential consequences on a global scale for what the ICJ has deemed a "plausibly" genocidal war on Gaza but also a corruption trial in his own country.
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Biden spoke with Netanyahu by phone ahead of the IDF strikes on Monday and "reiterated his clear position on Rafah," according to a White House readout. They also discussed the hostage negotiations, humanitarian aid, the Holocaust, and antisemitism.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, also suggested that the Israeli prime minister wants the bloodshed in Gaza to continue for personal reasons.
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The Pulitzer Prize Board avoided "naming the brave Palestinian journalists who did the reporting and filming and died in record numbers," said one journalist.
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In recent years, the Pulitzer Prize Board has given special recognition to the journalists of Ukraine and Afghanistan for reporting from war zones, honoring their "courage, endurance, and commitment to truthful reporting" and their ability to tell their communities' stories under "profoundly tragic and complicated circumstances."
On Monday, no such recognition was given to Palestinian reporters in Gaza, at least 92 of whom have been among more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in the enclave since Israel began its bombardment in October.
The annual journalism and literature awards included a special citation for "journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza"—but didn't differentiate between those around the world who have spent the last seven months telling the story of Israel's escalation from the safety of far-off countries, and those struggling to report on the destruction of their own home under the constant threat of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks.
"The missing word is—is always—Palestinian," said Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG). "Palestinian journalists and media workers deserve, if nothing else, this recognition; and half of them are dead."
Public health writer Abdullah Shihipar noted that in 2022, the board awarded the special citation to the "journalists of Ukraine." In 2021, it recognized "women and men of Afghanistan," saying that from "staff and freelance correspondents to interpreters to drivers to hosts, courageous Afghan residents helped produce Pulitzer-winning and Pulitzer-worthy images and stories."
This year, said Intercept journalist Jeremy Scahill, giving a special citation to "'media workers covering the war in Gaza' is a way to avoid naming the brave Palestinian journalists who did the reporting and filming and died in record numbers."
Many of those killed, Scahill added, might not have been had it not been for U.S.-made weapons sold to Israel.
The Pulitzer Prize for international reporting was awarded to The New York Times "for its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas' lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel's intelligence failures, and the Israeli military's sweeping, deadly response in Gaza."
One of the Times' most explosive articles about Israel and Gaza, "Screams Without Words," about the alleged sexual assaults of Israeli victims of the October 7 attack, was not among those submitted for consideration. The article has come under scrutiny because of the anti-Palestinian bias expressed by one of the freelance reporters who worked on it, and questions about its veracity.
WAWOG, which has started a website titledThe New York War Crimes, posted on social media that the Times should have instead been awarded the Pulitzer for "manufacturing consent."
By honoring the Times for its international reporting this year, said City University of New York sociology professor Heba Gowayed, the Pulitzer Prize "lost any credibility it ever had."
The prize is administered by Columbia University, where students have been protesting for weeks against U.S. support for the IDF and against the school's investment in companies that contract with Israel.
Last week, the university called on the New York Police Department to forcibly remove student protesters from a school building; police told student journalists they would be arrested if they left Pulitzer Hall to report on the incident. Student journalists are reportedly still being barred from campus.
Columbia, said Jack Mirkinson of The Nation, announced the Pulitzers "at the exact same time it is clamping down on the press freedom of its own students. You couldn't make it up."
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