What are your thoughts on lead exposure?

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Now when I cast bullets, I do take some precautions. I tend to set my pot up outside in cooler weather. and if I have to do so in my shed I set an exhaust fan so it is pulling air away from me, across the pot and out a window. Never bother with a respirator. At 80 years old, I don't think my future exposure will amount to anything.
 
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jps2486 said:
I got this from a toxicologist:

Much of the information out there about lead poisoning is nothing more than alarmist science. I work in a toxicology lab and am always amazed at the bad rap that lead gets. Let's look at a few things:

- The lead in lead paint is in the form of organic lead and lead salts, NOT METALLIC LEAD. Both organic lead and lead salts are easily absorbed if you eat something contaminated with it or put your fingers in your mouth after handling something contaminated with it.

- Lead poisoning of waterfowl after eating the metallic lead. This is actually true and why I think so many folks are so scared of metallic lead. But there is a big difference between waterfowl and humans. Waterfowl have gizzards. The lead shot that the bird eats gets trapped in the gizard and very slowly erodes, is converted into bioavailable lead salts thanks to digestive acids, and is absorbed into the circulation. This can only occur because the lead shot gets stuck in the gizzard and is continuously ground releasing microscopic lead particles into the digestive tract.

Humans do not have a gizzard and thus a lead pellet and other metallic lead will pass thru quickly and no harm will come of it.

- But I know PB enthusiasts that have suffered lead poisoning from handling lead bullets. No you don't. The biggest problem that PB enthusiasts have with lead is from the propellant. When the propellant burns it gives off vapors of lead salts (again, not metallic lead). These lead salts are dangerous and why you should not routinely shoot a PB indoors, except in a very well ventilated range.

- What about lead dust? What if you inhale lead dust?

Have you ever seen lead dust? I bet you really haven't. It is still lead and no matter how fine a dust particle it is ground in to, it is still many, many, many, many, many times heavier than air and immediately falls to the floor. Now I'm sure that you could devise a way to inhale lead dust, but it would need to be intentionally done.

- What about that black stuff I get on my fingers after handling CPL and CPH pellets. That stuff is not lead (IIRC it is actually graphite) and even if it was lead your body has no easy way of absorbing metallic lead.

- Lead vapors, what about lead vapors? I heard they are extremely toxic. And if we are melting lead to cast our own pellets, or bullets, or fishing sinkers, then we will die.

No you won't, unless you have a really, really hot smelting furnace. Lead melts at 328 Celsius (622 F) but doesn't vaporize until around 1,700 Celsius (3,092 F). Now should you actually reach the vaporization temperature, you will have a problem.

I could go on, but will stop at this point.
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I was told that a lawn care worker at a very old established range did "in fact" develop lead poisoning from cutting the grass on the ranges with no protective gear except maybe hearing protection. But this is second hand info. Cph pellets have Antimony in them.
 
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AirNGasman said:
I think if One gives the benefit of the doubt that sometimes some things we are fed by Powers That Be might be based in Reality, it might not be a good idea to eat lead pellets.

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i have watched a number of ol time shooters put pellets in their mouths before loading... seems as a kid i might have done this also?
 
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I have a buddy recently retired as an engineer in the lead industry. As stated in some post above there is a lot of alarmist b's out there according to him. He said the only thing to be afraid of is molten lead hot enough to give off lead vapors and you inhale them. He emphasized that required extremely hot molten lead not all moltenlead.
 
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jps2486 said:
I got this from a toxicologist:

Much of the information out there about lead poisoning is nothing more than alarmist science. I work in a toxicology lab and am always amazed at the bad rap that lead gets. Let's look at a few things:

- The lead in lead paint is in the form of organic lead and lead salts, NOT METALLIC LEAD. Both organic lead and lead salts are easily absorbed if you eat something contaminated with it or put your fingers in your mouth after handling something contaminated with it.

- Lead poisoning of waterfowl after eating the metallic lead. This is actually true and why I think so many folks are so scared of metallic lead. But there is a big difference between waterfowl and humans. Waterfowl have gizzards. The lead shot that the bird eats gets trapped in the gizard and very slowly erodes, is converted into bioavailable lead salts thanks to digestive acids, and is absorbed into the circulation. This can only occur because the lead shot gets stuck in the gizzard and is continuously ground releasing microscopic lead particles into the digestive tract.

Humans do not have a gizzard and thus a lead pellet and other metallic lead will pass thru quickly and no harm will come of it.

- But I know PB enthusiasts that have suffered lead poisoning from handling lead bullets. No you don't. The biggest problem that PB enthusiasts have with lead is from the propellant. When the propellant burns it gives off vapors of lead salts (again, not metallic lead). These lead salts are dangerous and why you should not routinely shoot a PB indoors, except in a very well ventilated range.

- What about lead dust? What if you inhale lead dust?

Have you ever seen lead dust? I bet you really haven't. It is still lead and no matter how fine a dust particle it is ground in to, it is still many, many, many, many, many times heavier than air and immediately falls to the floor. Now I'm sure that you could devise a way to inhale lead dust, but it would need to be intentionally done.

- What about that black stuff I get on my fingers after handling CPL and CPH pellets. That stuff is not lead (IIRC it is actually graphite) and even if it was lead your body has no easy way of absorbing metallic lead.

- Lead vapors, what about lead vapors? I heard they are extremely toxic. And if we are melting lead to cast our own pellets, or bullets, or fishing sinkers, then we will die.

No you won't, unless you have a really, really hot smelting furnace. Lead melts at 328 Celsius (622 F) but doesn't vaporize until around 1,700 Celsius (3,092 F). Now should you actually reach the vaporization temperature, you will have a problem.

I could go on, but will stop at this point.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the thorough overview. Most people haven't learned much about chemistry since high school. So it's difficult for them to identify accurate vs emotionally distorted pseudo-results when they come across a YouTube review. I worked for several years as an analytic chemist in a regional laboratory.

Toxicology is a medical specialty. Except for situations of clear and immediate poisoning, an assessment of toxic chemical effects often requires a broad understanding of toxic compounds and how they are distributed and absorbed and excreted etc.. Your summary was unusual for its thoroughness. It included information which could be found by diligent web search, but which doesn't often show up in an airgun forum in this level of detail.

JP
 
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I’m surprised that no one brought up Californias lead bullet ban mostly based on their state bird ( Condor) supposedly being poisoned from injesting lead bullets from game animals shot with lead bullets. This no doubt caused many to believe humans could also be poisoned by eating a game animal that had been shot with lead bullets. They must have forgot how our forefathers fed their familys with game shot with lead bullets. Law makers must have believed these ridiculous accusations. Now I question the results of testing done on the Condors found dead whether it was indeed lead poisoning or by eating pest animals that had been poisoned . A problem that has always been a Factor and is in the news today in California with high levels of these poisons found in carnivores and wild pigs lately despite bans on these poisons in most cases. I hunted in South Africa a few years ago and noticed a complete absence of vultures as seen on TV shows cleaning up after lion kills. I was told they had mostly been wiped out by the farmers / sheep ranchers illegaly poisoning the Jackels and Carakal cats which the vultures then fed on and also died.
Illegal Wide spread use of poisons in California and other states on pest animals is the problem yet the anti gun and anti hunting crowd had made lead to be this super toxic poison that if injested will kill you. I too grew up carying pellets in my mouth and spitting bird shot in my plate at dinner . I had no Ill effects that I know of but who knows maybe if I hadn’t put those pellets in my mouth I could have been a better student in school and gone on to be an engineer or doctor. Nawww.
 
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