While some 80,000 Americans are exposed to non-fatal injuries every year, many of them experience high toxicity in their bodies due to the high rate of lead in these shots, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

In 2017, the first year for data on deaths from these toxins, nearly 40,000 people died of these toxins more than any other year since at least 1968, when the government began to follow the path electronically. This is the third year in a row that the US has seen a rise in lead poisoning mortality.

In 2017, when the CDC issued its first report linking the toxicity of bullets to shrapnel, the Health Agency confirmed that at least 457 adult survivors of the shooting between 2003 and 2012 suffered from high levels of lead in the blood caused by shrapnel trapped inside Their bodies. The Centers for Disease Control received data from 41 states involved in the adult epidemiology and blood monitoring program, which requires laboratories and health care providers to report to public health departments the results of the lead level in the blood.

Sources of exposure to lead

The program asks states to identify sources of exposure to lead, but many states have not complied. That's why it is impossible for researchers to draw conclusions about the overall level of this national issue, and the real number is likely to be much higher than 457 people, says CDC epidemiologist Deborah Weiss.

It is difficult to collect such data today. Since the report was issued, the CDC has stopped studying this issue, noting that fewer states wish to provide sufficient information. The federal government canceled funding for the program in 2013. When it was refinanced in 2015, only 26 states were part of the program, according to the CDC. "The biggest unanswered question is whether the number of cases is increasing or not," says Weiss.

No manual

There is no evidence that the exposure to toxins has slowed. In at least 12 states, which are subject to epidemiology and blood monitoring in adults, and track exposure to different lead sources, the test showed that nearly 300 people have high levels of lead fragments in their bodies between 2012 and 2018. During that time, more than 200 people in California and 28 in Missouri were found to have high levels of lead in the blood due to lead fragments in their bodies, according to state health departments. In Michigan, where the Flint water crisis created a major awareness of lead hazards, nearly 60 fire victims with lead toxicity were found in their bodies between 2012 and 2016, the most recent period in which data were used, Health officials say.

Concern justified

"There is clearly enough research to justify the cause of concern," said Professor of Toxicology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Donald Smith, whose research team helped state authorities ban fishermen from using lead ammunition. While studying the effects of lead toxicity in the California falcons, one of the world's largest endangered birds, the researchers found that these birds die in large numbers from being shot or have severe disease from lead poisoning, She dies with bullets.

Contracts of research into the effects of paint mixed with lead, fuel and drinking water have shown the impact of devastating lead in humans. In 1978, the United States banned the use of paint containing lead. In 1996, the federal government took a step forward when it banned the sale of leaded fuel. The 2014 public health crisis in Flint, Mich., Re-highlighted the impact of lead when water supplies in the city became contaminated with this substance after officials switched water sources.

• In at least 12 states, the test showed that nearly 300 people have high levels of lead fragments in their bodies between 2012 and 2018.

• In 2017, the Health Agency confirmed that at least 457 adult survivors of the shooting, between 2003 and 2012, suffer from high levels of lead in the blood, caused by fragments trapped inside their bodies.