Tissue–Bismuth Levels of Game Birds Harvested with Bismuth Shotshell: Policy Implications.

The article presents a study on whether bismuth pellets fragment upon impacting game birds harvested with bismuth shotshell and pose a potential unquantified source of bismuth for people ingesting wild game. During the 1998 spring hunting season, First Nation Cree of the western James Bay region in Canada shot two species of upland game birds with bismuth-tin shotshell as part of their normal harvest. They allowed the salvaging of certain parts of the birds for the present study. Upland game birds were chosen as the study species because the birds are not typically wounded with shotshells in the Western James Bay region. They are easily harvested with shotshell and even ensared on the ground or in the trees.