Canadian scientists have studied the effect of 'non-toxic' bismuth shotgun pellets on the environment with thought-provoking results.

Bismuth pellets were introduced as a non-toxic alternative to lead in 1994 in the US and 1997 in Canada, due to their similar ballistic properties.  With spent pellets now spread across rural North America, little is actually known about the fate of bismuth once it enters the environment.

To help fill this knowledge gap, Nathan Fahey, University of Waterloo, and co-workers placed bismuth pellets on the surface of a freshwater wetland, and tested the soil and plants for bismuth contamination each year for four years.  The group's results suggest that, in this prime environment for the hunting of game birds, bismuth is leached into the soil but is not transferred from the soil into the plants. 

Fahey hopes that his findings will encourage other researchers to further examine the non-toxic status of bismuth. He says that a variety of ecosystems must be studied and long-term research is needed to trace the fate of bismuth from shot-gun pellets.

Fay Riordan