Question on "lead poisoning"

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HighRoadRover

HighRoadRover

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There is a lot of lead around a reloading table -- in the media that I use to clean brass (from the lead styphnate in the primers) and in the residue from the cast lead bullets I reload. I typically get lead on my hands -- finger tips turn gray -- if I reload as few as 50 rounds of cast lead bullets.

I've seen almost nothing on this topic in reloading magazines and web pages, but it seems like there is a fair amount of lead being spread around by reloading. Should reloaders wear nitrile or latex gloves when reloading? Should we take precautions -- what would be reasonable? I just wonder what other reloaders think about this issue and what anyone else does about it (my kids are grown and gone, but I don't want lead poisoning, either).
 
Lead is indigested through the mouth & lungs.

Don't smoke or suck your thumb while handling bullets, and wash your hands afterward, and you won't ingest it.

When casting, use cross-flow ventilation and an exhaust fan.
If your tumbler media is full of black dust?
Spring for some new media, additive, and a HEPA-filter shop vac.

I started casting lead solders, and fishing sinkers in about 1950 when I was 6.
Started casting bullets and reloading in 1962.

Now that I am 69?

I breathed more lead fumes from leaded gasoline fumes and ate more lead based paint as a baby in the first 25 years of my life then I have in all 70 years of my life reloading & shooting.
And there is nothing lead related wrong with me yet.

Nooooobobo prpomfldjkoshd?
Scuse me!

I have to go get a towel to wipe the drool off my Keyyy Borode and rest awhile now.

rc
 
Lead is absorbed more in soft tissue than through skin. Some chemicals will travel transdermal IE solvents and insecticides, however, lead doesn't easily. Lead that is ingested or inhaled will eventually accumulate the bones and isn't easily eliminated. The body will not metabolize lead. Imo gloves wouldn't be a bad idea. I think there's a sticky on lead somewhere.
 
There was quite a discussion here a while ago, preserved in a sticky -

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=307170

My personal choice is nitrile gloves when separating media (outdoors).

I don't reload with cast bullets, but if you are seeing gray fingers, you can either wear nitrile gloves or just keep your hands away from your mouth until you wash them. From what I understand, lead dust isn't absorbed through the skin.

I believe lead dust shouldn't be ignored, but it should also be understood. It isn't asbestos, or plutonium.

If you make a reasonable effort to separate lead dust activities from your reloading bench, you probably won't have a general contamination problem, just localized to your hands. (IMO)
 
Do a search on this site and you'll come up with all kinds of threads. There is a lot of misunderstanding and myths concerning lead contamination, but simple housekeeping and personal hygiene will take care of any associated risks.

I've been reloading since 1963, and casting tons of bullets since about 1968, and my blood level is within the normal range. I just wash my hands after handling lead products of any kind and don't eat while reloading or shooting. By the way, there is more lead styphnate in the air when actually shooting than around your bench. It's the vaporized or oxidized lead that can be inhaled or ingested that is the problem, not elemental lead. It CAN NOT be absorbed through the skin in it's elemental form.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
As stated, the biggest issue is personal hygiene. When loading don't eat, pick burgers, rub your eyes or ears. Wash your hands before doing anything beside loading. Use dryer sheets in your tumbler to keep the dust at bay. If you don't have a convenient washroom buy some of the mechanic's scrubbing wipes, they're cheap and do a good job of cleaning. I keep some in my range bag, too.
 
Thanks for the info -- as you might expect, I have been washing my hands after reloading cast bullets since I started using them a few months ago. The media needs to go, but I keep stretching it...
 
Just dont touch your face or mouth and you should be fine, provided you also do not have any open cuts. If there is any very fine dust (fine enough to be airborn if there is a gust in the room) you may consider wearing an old pair of clothes with goggles and a mask and showering after your done, just to be safe. Tho it would be easier to vacuum and thoroughly clean your area. I dont reload but i do have other projects that involve lead and other potentially nasty substances.
 
"Just dont touch your face or mouth and you should be fine, provided you also do not have any open cuts."

Cuts have nothing to do with absorbing elemental lead. If it did, a lot of wounded vets, who are carrying lead fragments in their bodies, would have died of lead poisoning long ago. I've been carrying a lead fragment in my body for quite some time, but my blood level hasn't risen at all.

Once again, it's vaporized and oxidized lead that is either ingested or inhaled that is the problem, not elemental lead.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Don't smoke and eat while reloading. A bit of ventilation around the casting pot can't hurt. Put the skimmed dross in a coffee can and put a lid on it.

I keep a container of alky wipes for cleaning my hands in my range bag, in my car trunk, and on the loading bench. I wipe my hands off after contacting lead.

55 years old, I've cast bullets in a single wide w/o ventilation, reload pistol with mostly lead bullets. I have no lead related health issues. Btw, I played with mercury as a kid too. (don't do it)
 
I have had lead poisoning and I can tell you after that you are much more likely to get it from shooting indoors in an inadequately ventilated range than you are from loading thousands of bullets. I do agree that you don't want to breath in the dust or eat it but that can be controlled by a little cleaning. BTW symptoms were tired all the time and joint pain. I was tested and it took better than six months of shooting outside to limit exposure to get me below the danger level. I did not have to have the chelation therapy because I was 2 points below critical. Good shooting.
 
Personally, I think the lead thing is way overblown...the government going crazy again.

When I was growing up we used to cast sinkers. Used an open flame with the lead very, very hot. Still make sinkers today the same way. Definitely don't worry about just handling solid lead after that. No problems healthwise from it at all.

Also ran with scissors, didn't wear seat belts (didn't have them then), fried with lard (have a lot of aunts and uncles and a mother who are in their late 80's and early 90's who rendered lard for grease), and many other things that government says is bad for you. Don't believe everything they tell you.
 
you are much more likely to get it from shooting indoors in an inadequately ventilated range
Click to expand...
No truer words have ever been spoken!
2 years ago my lead level was at 29. (the doc wanted it less than 10)
The only thing I did was quit the indoor range.
Last month my lead level was 7.
By the way, I started casting during that time.
Just don't suck your dirty thumb, wash when your done & there's no problem.

Personally, I think the lead thing is way overblown...the government going crazy again.
Click to expand...

Ya, some people can get crazy.
Wearing chemical suits etc. But the effects of lead poisoning is not a myth.
 
Ah my mistake I guess you're right, :p tho i still don't think id want to be bleeding around lead shavings and powder
 
Originally Posted by Sentryau2
tho i still don't think id want to be bleeding around lead shavings and powder
You don't. Why ruin good components?
Click to expand...

Thats a secret ingredient at some benches. Especially some with LNL's on them. I hear...

I personally use concentrated hope, but blood'll do in a pinch.
 
I wash my hands after cleaning guns or handloading ammo before I eat or drink (I quit smoking decades ago (OK, I do smoke gunpowder but I seldomn inhale)).

I shoot at the family property on the mountain or at a local gun club with outdoor ranges, seldomnr indoors. If I shot at an indoor range, I would insist on a range with exhaust fans in the rear, air circulation from the firing station to downrange (and I hate indoors ranges as a shooting experience; I was introduced to shooting at the old homeplace in the mountains.)
 
I had shot at the same indoor range for years before the problem occurred. The reason for the sudden lead mess was the exhaust fans had been rewired recently and they go the wires crossed somehow so that the fans were exhausting behind the line instead of blowing into the range. The "out" vents were at the far end of the range which, with the fans runnng backwards, proabably had cleaner air than the firing line. The range went almost 4 months in this condition until I brought it to the owner's attention. It waa fixed the next week. I was also spending about 4hours per day 6 days a week training for upcoming bullseye competitions.
 
If you have some kind of ventilation, all the better. But all you really need to do to keep everything under control is use common sense and wash your hands and face before you eat or drink anything. As stated before in other replies working with lead has been blown way out of proportion. I own a secondary foundry and we cast lead every day, in the old days we would heat our lunches on the pot rims all the time. None of us have any issues and have our blood levels checked every three months. Our forman has been with us for sixty years and has a blood lead level equivelent to someone who is never in contact with lead. It would be a good idea to also have a set of casting clothes that you can change into for working with it and changing back when finished
 
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