My job involves dealing with a fair amount of children with severe lead poisoning. I'm actually writing a research protocol that looks at lead levels in women of child bearing age, so this is a topic that I am quite familiar with.
Lead pellets are *not* dangerous in solid form and if ingested they'll go right through.
This is generally true, but not entirely so. It depends greatly on how "dangerous" is defined. There will be some absorption when elemental lead is eaten. For an adult, when action levels are 50 mcg/dL, unless the ingestion is massive, or there is extremely high surface area, the amount of absorbed is probably not significant.
That may not be true for a child. Levels of 5 mcg/dL and above are associated with IQ reductions. Will a single pellet of bullet fragment yield lead poisoning? Unlikely. Will even a dozen? Probably not. Could repeated ingestions? Possibly. Especially is the lead is cooked with other things and leaves the elemental state. That isn't to say that there is a huge risk, however repeated meals of small fragments could potentially push a child's lead level up.
If they're not considered dangerous for children and pregnant women (acceptable bll levels for children and pregnant women are lower for typical adults) then why the recommendation?
The summary says that the peak levels they found were a hair below 10 mcg/dL. Those levels are high enough to be of concern for children or pregnant women. Of course, you have to wonder how much of that is from leaded ammunition and how much is from other environmental exposure. It also isn't clear is the highest level was even in someone who ate game. They are playing CYA.
If eating animals that were shot with lead bullets is dangerous, then why is it that surviving a gunshot wound doesn't result in lead poisoning?
Actually, people who are shot, especially with pellets do have elevated lead levels. The levels are generally below the occupation action levels and are thus deemed "non-toxic." Since adults do not have a developing nervous system the lead is less toxic. Bullets in joints, around fractures, and in a few other circumstances actually can cause significant elevations in blood lead levels.
The CDC is trying to be cautious. They can't say it is all "safe," even though there is very little evidence for toxicity. When it comes to kids and pregnant women, they can't say it is safe as there will be one person who gets lead poisoning and, even if erroneous, blames it on eating a lead pellet. So they have to put the caveat.
That all being said, it does make a certain amount of sense to cut away and discard the bloodshot meat before grinding and to attempting to remove pellets.
