*** FORUMS ARCHIVE ***

BOISE, Idaho - The meat in your freezer from the deer you shot last fall may be contaminated with tiny fragments of lead from the bullets that killed it.

A study released last week by the Peregrine Fund and Washington State University shows that people who consume venison from game animals killed with lead bullets risk ingestion of the poisonous metal. Tiny amounts of lead can cause brain development problems in children. Even amounts previously considered safe in adults are now known to increase rates of death from heart attack and stroke.

"X-rays revealed that processed ground venison from 80 percent of the deer sampled in the research contained metal fragments," said Rick Watson, vice president of Boise-based Peregrine Fund, a raptor conservation organization. Officials there pulled donated venison from food pantries in March after lead was found in 60 percent of meat tested.