Testing for lead in the body

[SFogler]

I know it's been awhile since this topic came up and my results confirm the former threads. I just had blood work done for my physical and I asked my doctor to authorize a test for lead in my system. I just got the results back and my lead levels are normal. I don't handle lead any differently than anyone one else I know; I cast them, size them, and seat bullets with my fingers. So it seems that how we handle lead in our sport is not injurious to our health.

[George Babits]

Elemental lead isn't really any problem. It is basically insoluable. If I remember right, all the drain in the chem lab sinks were made of lead for just that reason. The hype about lead bullets is just another way the political scientists use to harass the subjects.

George

[Kurt]

I worked in the Plumbing trade for 35 years. During that time frame a lot of lead was used. 50/50 lead/tin solder was used and I wiped a lot of lead joints on lead pipes and DWV as well as lead shower pans and flashings with the lead furnace cooking the 30-50 pound lead pots and the lead in the pot was cherry red in the dark crawl space.
I ate my sandwiches with dirty hands. The Family Doctor suggested that I would take a lead test because of headaches because of my work. The test came back lead count below normal levels. The problem was neck related.

Kurt

[Don McDowell]

I just keep thinking about how tuff them jet jockies are , casting bullets with their fingers

[bobw]

I've been casting since 1972. Had my blood checked for lead levels also. Results came back non detectable. Read somewhere else the test for lead by blood is inadequate. Don't remember the details...bobw

[ian45662]

Few years ago I took a job for a contractor that was installing some electric for some robots that were to be used to help demolish some equipment at a nuclear enrichment plant. Part of what we had to do was to take blood level tests prior to going into the plant. My levels were “ slightly elevated”. Since then I have been more conscious of how I handle lead. I have not been tested since then but next time I have a DR appointment I will ask for a test and see where it is now

[Griff]

I haven't researched it, but I have been told that breathing airborne lead particles is the major risk. People who work in poorly ventilated indoor ranges, for example, run a higher risk. I do try to have decent ventilation when I'm casting and I wash my hands after handling lead or cleaning my guns, but I don't believe that the basic things that BPCR shooters do is particularly hazardous for lead poisoning.

Griff

[martinibelgian]

I believe you guys need to do more research. Lead itself isn't so dangerous, it's lead oxydes. So casting requires some attention in using good ventilation and hygiene afterwards. But another major source, espcially in closed firing ranges, is primers - there's lead styphnate in there, which gets airborne and can be inhaled, unless the range has adequate ventilation. No issue when shooting outside or in a well-ventilated range.

[John Bly]

A few years ago I had my blood tested for lead. My Dr. asked my why I wanted it tested. I told him I had been casting bullets for about 30 years and shooting in the N-SSA where we pull the bullets from a prepared cartridge with our teeth and hold it there while pouring the powder. I mentioned that the symptoms of lead poisoning were the sane as getting old, Irritability, loss of memory and diarrhea. When the results came back he told me I was just getting old.

[desert deuce]

"Just getting old huh?"

Aging is mandatory growing up is optional. Noticed a large number of seasoned black powder silhouette shooters dragging .22 rifles around the range last week and enjoying the shooting as much as the sub-juniors.

Seems this subject of lead poisoning has been extensively discussed previously on this forum.

[Blackstone]

Elemental lead isn't really any problem. It is basically insoluable. If I remember right, all the drain in the chem lab sinks were made of lead for just that reason. The hype about lead bullets is just another way the political scientists use to harass the subjects.

George

That is absolutely correct. Lead poisoning is a political hack to further the socialist adjenda and has been since its inseption.

[George Babits]

Glad somebody else sees that. It was so wonderful growing up in the 1950s before everything was bad for us. I even lived through some time in California. But that was before everything was known by the state of California to cause cancer. Been casting bullets since 1960 and have never given a thought to possible lead poisoning. The only kind of lead poison that I've ever worried about was being shot with a lead bullet.

Semper Fi
George

[MC One Shot]

I have casted since I was 10 and I have also worked in the clean up of lead smelters and furnaces etc. for a bit of time. As a caster I have never tested above 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL). When working in clean up I my test never got above 6.5/7. In the years that I had crews wading around in smelter lead crud and dust I only had one that had to be chelated. This was from his refusal to practice good hygiene all the time. A few did go over the 10 but get them to practice better hygiene and their levels drop below normal at their next test.

I do not wear gloves when I cast nor do I when I handle lead but I do wash my hands thoroughly before I eat anything as precaution during or after the fact. Although the lead in the pots does not get hot enough to vaporize I do have an exhaust fan in the room to exhaust all the other associated vapors from the crud that may get in with the lead as these vapors may contain unknown toxins. I have had a head ache occasionally from long casting sessions the cause is apparently from the radiant heat from the pot coil. I added more insulation inside the pot and they went away.

I had a blood test just out of curiosity after casting 4000+ bullet, round balls and 200#s of ingots. Guess what I was well below normal...

This all being said our physiological bodies may be different from each other in that they may not all react the same to introduced particulate and or chemicals and may expel the same at a different rate. So you have to practice what is in the best interest of your health and being.

Nuff Said. As you were cast away...

[opencountry]

Chelation therapy; been there, done that. I went to see a homeopathic doctor many years ago because I just felt worn out - lacking necessary energy. I was about forty-five or fifty years old at the time; seventy-two now. The tests showed a fairly high lead content in my blood. I sweated/soldered copper pipe and fittings together, being a union pipefitter by profession, ...and cast a lot of pure lead round balls for two very nice .53 cal. Hawkins rifles (J. Henry 006 & 007), (out of Billings, Montana). After a couple months of chelation therapy I was back to 'normal' again. Since that time I have handled lead VERY carefully.
There was another young fella from Helena having the same therapy at the same time with me. He was really bad (X10) with lead. He said he never touched lead in his life, that he could remember. But, he grew up playing in the dirt as a child in Helena. I remember telling me the lead content in his blood was ten times what mine was.
So, I now wear high-quality breathing apparatus while casting, plus scrub my hands with Lava soap on course washcloths after handling/seating pp bullets.

Robert

[bohemianway]

Back in he 1980s we were shooting a lot of indoor, poorly ventilated, on the ROTC rifle and pistol teams and my friend was studying to be a Medical Technologist. He had his blood tested before and after ever season. The results were normal before the season and above the suggested limit at the end of the season. It was a particularly bad range in that it had two levels so the lower level got all the vapors floating down on them from the upper deck. After a few years we quit and anecdotally my GPA went way up (ie. led to grad school).