Lead ban?

I'm totally against it. I'll loose a ton of money between sinkers and jigs and the molds I have. I'm sure others feel the same.How much will it cost the fishermen to replace lead with something else? I'm sure some company with a replacement material is lobbying hard for the ban and plan to make a fortune.

Bill or no bill, I'm fishing with lead.

ORIGINAL: Swans500

Yeah, sure it is toxic, but a minute fraction compared to the toxicity COMPANIES and governments have (and continue to) plied into the waterways and oceans!!!!

Just another deliberate irritation to put on to amateur fishermen....by companies and governments. Both should have WAY more to worry about!

ORIGINAL: Esox_Hunter

Lead is toxic. It has nothing to do with any company

I understand companies are responsible for all sorts of different pollutants out there. Does that have anything to do with the current proposed lead ban? Just saying to the OP that there is no conspiracy theory going on, as people often believe.

This ban will probably accomplish very little if passed, but the fact remains the driving force behind the ban is that lead is toxic and can be harmful.

ORIGINAL: tigercat

Good a civil healthy debate.Both sides all have good reasons.Sometimes maybe we should meet in the middle.How about some kind of phase out of lead? Don't know how that could fly But?????

I'm 100% against it. Nobody is out there eating it. This radical liberal crap usually originates in California and everyone says something like "it's just a fishing sinker" and it goes through. Then things begin to erode from there. ..."it's just shot shells"..."it's just handgun bullets"..."it's just hunting bullets"...."it's just bullets". Remember when the right to bear arms wasn't supposed to be infringed upon? Look at the obscene thing the 2nd amendment has turned into.

I haven't heard a good reason yet to ban it. I've got 17 more reasons not to ban it in case this thread goes to 45 pages.

i have a 100+ lbs of lead and get more monthly, that should keep me going for some years.lol i hope

I've noticed a bunch of new lead substitute sinkers available now.  They seem to be relatively close in price.  Not sure if they'll be able to do the jig heads and anything that needs detail or hook in it cheaply though.  If they can, then I don't really care if it is banned.  I have enough lead in my tackle boxes to "phase" it out from my personal collection. 
 
I'm actually rather surprised they took this long to ban it.  They've banned it from paint and gasoline a while back, and are sticklers when it comes to paint chipping on a house to allow it to be sold.  I'm guessing you'd need to eat a pretty good amount of paint chips to equal one split shot of solid lead too.  I know as a kid, I used to bite them tight...  I'd rather not have any of my or any kids doing that.  Trust me, my Dad told me not to do it, but when I'd run off on my own and forgot the forecepts or pliers, the teeth worked out well. 
 
Not sure what the environmental impacts are, with minimal amounts in the water?  Probably what Essox saying being the most.  They've banned it in use for water pipes a long time ago, knowing it was bad for that.  I'm sure there was some resistance to that change as well.  We're pretty smart as humans to make replacements for things.  I'm sure many old plumbers used to lead for pipes still swear it is the best for the application, as well as those painters and mechanics that were in business before the bans on lead in their industry.

The difference is that ingesting small amounts of plastic isn't going to cause harm to humans. Rusty hooks causing bacterial infections on fish will not cause harm to humans. Ingest enough lead and you will be in some serious trouble.

While I still highly doubt banning lead in fishing will have much of an impact on the well being of people, that is the logic behind it. And again, I don't see the big deal of finding alternative weights to use.