WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT… LEAD
One hundred and fifty years ago, wild meat was harvested, without the use of guns, to feed the burgeoning cities. In the 1890s, skylarks from fields and woodcock in woodland rides were netted and brought to Leadenhall Market in London. Soon breechblock shotguns took harvesting meat to a new level, meaning there were no more low-hung nets, and the fieldsport presented the challenge of killing cleanly and efficiently with the spread of shot, propelled safely from cartridges discharged at a prodigious rate. An abundance of lead, the material used for the shot, which earlier had attracted the Romans to geologically diverse Britain, saw us become its primary extractor in the 19th century.
of the dangers associated with it. The Greek physician Dioscorides wrote: “Lead makes the mind give way.” It’s a neurotoxin that mimics calcium causing cells to absorb it mistakenly. Within the past year there have been fears over lead pollution following the fire at Notre Dame cathedral; a diamanté-studded hoodie was recalled by River Island after it was revealed the garment could contain “lead in excess of legal safety levels”; while according to a study by researchers at the University of Plymouth, decorative
