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So Bottomgum, your first link describes pretty well that elemental lead (the stuff used in sinkers and jigs) does not dissolve in water. The biologically available leads that create the issues that concern you are man produced and used chemically. Certainly they are an issue, and a reason gasoline is no longer leaded, but hardly a subject for fishing regulations. Probably high concentrations of elemental lead would be bad for marine organisms, but given lead's low solubility in water and the volume of water in the ocean, it is hard to see this being an issue.
The situation is likely analogous to Mercury (Hg). Hg in elemental (ie metal) form is not very toxic stuff. Inhalation of vapor can be bad at high concentration, but absorbtion through the gut or skin is poor. You can drink it and it all comes out the other end. For decades bags of it were used to pass feeding tubes along the gut in ill patients. It is the organic mercury compounds (primarily pesticides) that are highly poisonous neurotoxins and what people get when they eat too much tuna.
Lead is actually more poisonous than Hg in an elemental form (it is absorbed well from the Gi tract and interferes with blood cell maturation (ie causes anemia). That is the reason it is a problem for birds that ingest lead shot and split shot material thinking it is food. As far as I am aware, there is no evidence birds are eating 3 oz sinkers in saltwater.
I am not a toxicologist or a chemist, and I am not pretending to be any kind of expert on this, but I think a VERY large paintbrush gets used to illustrate these environmental issues, and often the public ends up mislead. If lead sinkers are truly a significant harm to the environment, most of us would look to change our behavior. But before doing so we deserve accurate information on just how much harm they are. So far I have seen none other than the bird ingestion issue.
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