Joplin Globe: Heavy metals poisoning birds

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4/28/05
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Study of former mining field notes first zinc poisoning anywhere

By Wally Kennedy

Globe Staff Writer

PICHER, Okla. - For the first time anywhere, zinc poisoning has been found in wild birds in the former Tri-State Mining District.

A study, recently released by researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Wildlife Health Center, has documented that wild birds in the former mining district are being poisoned by heavy metals in their habitats.

John Miesner, a researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Manhattan, Kan., said the mining district is the first site at which wild birds have been found to suffer from zinc poisoning.

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