
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EPA MAY MOVE TO BAN LEAD SINKERS

Prodded by environmentalists, the Clinton administration took steps Wednesday to restrict - and perhaps ban - lead fishing weights.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it will propose a rule in January to bar the manufacture and sale of at least some of the sinkers, considered a danger to swans, loons, cranes and other waterfowl.

Al Heier, a spokesman for the agency, said EPA has made a preliminary determination the weights are hazardous to waterfowl. But he said it is not clear if the new rule would ban all sinkers or exempt some considered too large to be swallowed by the birds.

More than 2 million pounds of lead are used each year to make sinkers used by millions of Americans who fish, the Environmental Defense Fund said.

The fund said other materials, including bismuth, tin and steel, could be substitutes for lead in the sinkers.

by CNB