Evil lead!

[Britsmoothy]

It's not evil in my book at all but I got to wondering just, was there or is there any accounts from wayyyy back of lead miners getting lead associated diseases?
Our poliliticaly correct TV last week was going on and on and on about how lead shot COULD make you ill.
It a bit like tales of black powder could blow your barrel apart, especially if you use 4f but alas the proof still evades me.
I digress, so did lead miners of old get ill?

Where is Spence when you need him....

 

[necchi]

Oh yeah, lots of history going way back to Roman days;
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/get_the_lead_out/pdfs/health/Needleman_1999.pdf
But I'm with you,, no problems. Just try not to eat a spoonful of shot on a daily basis

 

[SDSmlf]

Going waaaaayyyyyy back there is the thought that lead poisoning contributed to many of the problems that brought about the fall of the Roman Empire, though like many other topics, there is still debate.

Didn’t see necchi’s post before I posted mine.

 

[deerstalkert]

yes ,maybe, you decide.
the Romans used lead for their piping. they also used it for their table ware. they also added it in powder form to their wine. they used it extensively in their industries as a lubricant. they used it for door and gate bearings/pivots.
and anyone wonders they died out from lead poisoning?
and remember the Roman empire covered most of the known world. do as the romans do hmmmm?
as for the miners the lead was in ore and only during and after blasting might one be contaminated. i at one time owned and operated a company in Commiefornia that was a MazMat mitigation and disposal company. the hysteria of the environmentalists almost made it impossible to operate. my liability insurance premium was over 40k a month. today over 30 years later i am still personally liable for every ounce of material we disposed in any certified fill.
and i retired to the back of nowhere why?!

 

[bubba.50]

I'm sure it has done and does do bad things under certain circumstances but, the biggest problem I've had with it is when ya miss a pellet or two when yer cleanin' game and then bite down on one after ya get'im fried up good & think ya might'a broke a tooth.

 

[Dave Marsh]

I read somewhere years ago that the Roman's used the white powder that accumulates on the lead as a sugar if I remember correctly. Of course, the post finished off with the statement "which is why we don't speak Latin today".

 

[SDSmlf]

Here is a read and video on the Romans and love of lead.
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...wnfall-of-roman-empire-the-jury-is-still-out/

 

[hanshi]

Lead is perfectly safe to handle but I would not recommend eating it. Minor exposure shouldn't be a problem in adults; children are a different story. Some plastics are much more toxic and are still used in food packaging! Politics and ignorance may be the end for us all.

 

[Critter Getter]

I would like to know which is more toxic to your health............lead or McDonalds?? Greg

 

[SDSmlf]

I would like to know which is more toxic to your health............lead or McDonalds?? Greg

A Big Mac, fries and a shake are good for almost1,300 calories, over 100% of your ‘recommended’ daily saturated fat and over 60% of the recommended amount of sodium. Call it a one stop all encompassing bad health meal. Pretty sure it is lead free though…..

 

[GBG]

FWIW, my relative has been carrying a lead slug lodged in his spine at an inoperable location for 50 years. He's had many related health problems but no signs of lead poisoning.

 

[oldwood]

Best not to do a " Lewis Wetzel " impression , and spit lead balls down the bore of yer rifle gun , while on the run from a bunch of Wyandot warriors , so your scalp stays attached. Ok to tell folks about it , but no demonstrations.

 

[Britsmoothy]

FWIW, my relative has been carrying a lead slug lodged in his spine at an inoperable location for 50 years. He's had many related health problems but no signs of lead poisoning.

Interesting. I have recovered airgun pellets from rabbits and squirrels and 22 bullets from deer! All calloused over and isolated. But the animals were fine.

 

[dave951]

FWIW, my relative has been carrying a lead slug lodged in his spine at an inoperable location for 50 years. He's had many related health problems but no signs of lead poisoning.

I'm carrying 3 slugs in me with no effects from lead but some effects from the damage caused when I got shot.

More to the point, if you look at compounds used in makeup and manufacturing processes from the Middle Ages on and you can't help be wonder how we're still here.

 

[tenngun]

It's not evil in my book at all but I got to wondering just, was there or is there any accounts from wayyyy back of lead miners getting lead associated diseases?
Our poliliticaly correct TV last week was going on and on and on about how lead shot COULD make you ill.
It a bit like tales of black powder could blow your barrel apart, especially if you use 4f but alas the proof still evades me.
I digress, so did lead miners of old get ill?

Where is Spence when you need him....

How would we know?
High lead levels in bone? That’s an explanation but connecting the dots is a little harder.
Man found dead in wrecked car. Autopsy showed a heart attack. Did he die of the heart attack and wreck? Or did the trauma of the wreck cause the heart attack?
Rome used lead everywhere. Toward the end of westren empire there was a decrease in in ‘Roman’s’, but lead levels were pretty high when the empire was being built.
Death rates were pretty high and very high amount the poor and miners in general.
It easy to say lead kills, but showing skeletal remains with high levels of lead in bones doesn’t equate to cause of death in a general population where forty was an old man.
Correlation in time is not correlation in cause.

 

[Flintlock]

These same people who make a big stink about lead hurting our children are the same ones allowing illegal narcotics to flow across the border and into our childrens bodies.

 

[Dude]

Bodies are pretty good at isolating foreign objects - walling them off so they're separated. Even cancer gets encysted, and best left that way rather than a doc cutting into it which allows it to spread.

As far as the Roman Empire, I've heard its downfall was Christianity. Towards the end it was pretty degraded with things like watching guys dying fighting wild animals and each other in the Coliseum, orgies, and stuff like that. Then the Christians came along and said "Go ahead and kill me, this isn't my only life. I won't go along with your crummy games." (all references to past lives were edited out of the bible at some point - I don't recall when) It's pretty tough on soldiers murdering good, decent people who weren't even resisting. They had controlled by threat of death and when that was challenged, it collapsed. Of course, the empire was on its way down anyway but who knows how much longer it might have continued.

 

[Ponderosaman]

I don’t know about lead miners but mercury miners were really affected by that metal. I just don’t think people cared as much back then or couldn’t afford to care or didn’t have a choice.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

The big lead scare a decade ago, was just to get rid of lead so no one could make ammo from it.
What the wheel weights are made of today is just as deadly, just cant make bullets out of it.
Im pushing 70, and we used to play with lead nodules in eastern Washington as a kid. Been casting for decades. Still healthy and ornery as ever.

 

[Brazos John]

Too bad they didn't have OSHA!