Heavy Metals Poisoning Birds

The Joplin Globe, Thursday, April 28, 2005, Heavy Metals Poisoning Birds, reported that a study, completed by researchers with US Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Wildlife Health Center, has documented that wild birds in the former (Tri-State) mining district are being poisoned by heavy metals in their habitats. John Miesner, a researcher with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Manhattan,KS, said that the mining district in the first site at which wild birds have been found to suffer from zinc poisoning.
"Migratory birds are flying into this area where they are exposed to these metals.Who knows how many fly away and die somewhere that we don't know about?" John Sparkman, a Pitcher resident. The irony that such a detailed heavy-metal study has been done on wild birds at the site and not done on the people who live there was evident to Sparkman. "I have never seen anything this detailed on the children who live here. What scares me is that these heavy metals are having such an adverse affect on wildlife. What is it doing to the people?"
USGS Researcher Meisner said that waterfowl, such as geese, mallards and swans, were the most affected by heavy metal contamination because they consume sediments from the streams and millponds in the mining district that have high concentrations of zinc and lead. http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=183666&c=87