Federated Research Data Repository / dépôt fédéré de données de recherche
Leontowich, Adam
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2022-06-23
Bullet fragments have been previously observed in the remains and edible portions of big
game animals that were harvested using rifles. The fragmentation issue has attracted
attention because traditional hunting bullets are more than 70% lead, which is toxic to
humans and scavengers in the ecosystem. We prepared gunshot wounds in ballistic gelatin
blocks, and then applied synchrotron X-ray imaging technology to the bullet fragmentation
process for the first time. The K edge subtraction (KES) imaging method allowed a clear
separation of lead in an image from false positives, including the other major bullet
component, copper, and non-lead objects such as bone fragments. The superior brightness of
synchrotron radiation was also harnessed to resolve thousands of embedded sub-10 µm
fragments, a size range not previously observed using commonly applied X-ray imaging
modalities. The results challenge the current understanding of the maximum extent that
fragments may be distributed, and the effectiveness of imaging methods used to screen wild
game donations at food banks for lead bullet fragments.
This dataset contains all of the raw data files associated with our 2022 publication of the same title.