 I'm often asked in lectures if microwaves are safe, to which I respond, not if you drop them on your foot. But otherwise, it matters what you're putting in them— sweet potatoes and broccoli or hot pockets and pop tarts. Similarly, when I was exploring the safety of hot sauces, giving their potential for lead contamination, I had the same reaction. It matters what you're putting it on. When I think toxic pollutants, the first thing I think of is the aquatic food chain. We know, for example, that giving people even just a 7-ounce portion of a high mercury fish, like tuna or swordfish, once a week— that's about a can and a half of tuna's worth a week— can quadruple mercury levels in the blood within a few months. What about lead? A dietary intervention with not one but five portions a week significantly increased blood concentrations of toxic metals, including lead. Even though the background intake of lead was found to be disturbingly high, the seafood intake increased it by about a quarter. But from a public health perspective, it's important to recognize that the amount of seafood that they use in that study far exceeds the intake of most populations. Lead can also biocumulate in other animals, but half of our dietary exposure to lead probably comes from plant foods. Animals shot with lead ammunition, though, may present a special case. We know lead is toxic and banned for most household items in developed countries, except for lead ammunition, now likely the greatest largely unregulated source of lead that is knowingly discharged into the environment in America. But not just discharged into the environment, but into the meat itself. People generally reject the idea of injecting toxic substances into food, except what involves hunting wild game. 80% of ground venison was found to contain lead. No surprise, given the hundreds of metal fragments end up in deer carxes after being shot with standard lead-based rifle bullets. An impossible number of fragments to pick out by hand, especially, because some of these fragments are microscopic. Using X-rays, researchers have shown that during penetration, expanding lead core bullets typically release hundreds or thousands of fragments or even millions, tens of millions of microscopic lead particles per gram. So, one servant could have a billion particles, though they were nanoparticles, extremely tiny about the size of viruses. The only good lead, though, is no lead. Even very low levels of lead exposure can result in brain and nerve damage. Most hunters may not be aware about the health risks related to consuming meat from animals killed with lead ammunition. Children may be at risk for losing IQ points, which could reduce their future prospects. A common response from hunters, though, when confronted with the risks of lead exposure, may be, oh, look, I've been hunting for years and I'm fine. To which this physician responds, ah, but just imagine how smart you could have been.