banning lead sinkers at ccns beaches?

[wheresmy50]

Originally Posted by WESTPORTMAFIA

Would you buy a house with lead paint? No. Even though you handle lead sinkers, jig heads and everything else? I use my teeth to open split shots made from lead. It doesn't seem like a big deal while fishing but when buying or selling houses it's a huge deal because it's poison. We all love lead but we all know it's not a good thing. You wouldn't want your family handling it and it's not a good thing to add to the ocean. I'm not trying to lecture anyone. I'm guilty as charged. But the bottom line is that the %$%$%$%$ is bad. I smoke butts and know it's bad too. http://www.http://kidshealth.org/par...poisoning.html. Toy companies don't get sued for multi-millions because lead is safe and fun for the whole family. Again don't get me wrong I use it and have for years. But we need to not be ignorant for their reasons for banning.

No headgear needed. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; even sometimes on internet fishing forums.

Where I fundamentally disagree with you and the government is over whether lead metal is an environmental pollutant in the quantities that are consistent with the occasional lost sinker.

I think, and I've said before, that legislation like this only exists to infringe on sportsmen through means other than an all-out ban. I have yet to see any evidence that birds, fish, marine mamals, etc. have been harmed through the use of lead in fishing tackle. It's not enough, in my opinion, to assume that because there are certain circumstances where "lead" can be harmful to certain people at certain points in their development, it's harmful to use lead fishing tackle. Further, once we start getting into banning things because they have a higher relative risk than other things, we're well on our way down the slippery slope. This is how peanut butter went from being a staple of kids' lunches, to something akin to rat poison. Isn't night fishing more dangerous than day fishing? Aren't barbed hooks more harmful than non-barbed? Shouldn't korkers be mandatory? If you can't shoot a seal, then why can you hook one? - should't fishermen be forced off the beaches when seals are present?

If I were a pessimist, I'd say that someone will soon issue a report "questioning" (since there's no proof, we can only question - the media will be indifferent to the difference) whether or not you can poision a person who eats fish that ate lead. The same thing is happening now with hunting.