Handling lead, dangerous?

[hack]

I hear the lefties are trying to shut down shooting ranges because of lead.
If its that dangerous they should be putting fences around all the civil war battle fields.
Those places are paved with lead and yet people are building new homes every year on them. :youcrazy:
why is it only dangerous at shooting ranges?????
:hmm:

 

[mark fish]

I worked a couple of years working in a pre osha radiator shop. lead is bad for you, it can wreck you teeth below the gumline and give you a bad disposition.However it's dangers are overhype.
Just use common sense and limit your exposure when you can.
I noticed somewhere militia guards were required to man their post will roundballs in thier mouths.
Does anyone know of a conflict started by a irritable,paranoid guard? :hmm:

 

[Russianblood]

How many of you out there are worried about the dangers of lead while you're smoking a cigarette? :youcrazy:

Health hazards are a matter of moderation and the amount of risk you're willing to take with your life. Even the sun is dangerous if you get too much of it.

 

[aragorn]

Surely it's best to err on the side of caution. There's likely to be an individual genetic component somewhere along the line. There are plenty of people who smoke all their lives and don't get lung cancer, and plenty of muzzleloaders who cast balls without breathing protection with no signficant lead accumulation. But how do you know whether you are going to be one of these people? Just because your friend is doesn't mean you will be. Wash your hands after handling lead - no big deal, most of us wash our hands before eating anyway. The biggest issue for muzzleloaders is lead fumes from casting. Solution: wear breathing protection. Easy.

 

[Forster]

W Russell,
IT's funny that you mentioned the taste of lead. In the 70's I shot a fair amount of pistol in a number of poorly ventalated pistol houses. To this day I can still remember the taste of lead, kind of a sweet taste....Jim

 

[Deadeye]

Stonebridge, I'd forgotten about that. During the 60s and 70s I shot regularly at an unventilated indoor pistol range, .45 autos mostly. I can remember us discussing the dangers of doing that
but we never did anything about it and no one, that I know of, ever had any problems.

 

[Old Ironsights]

W Russell,
IT's funny that you mentioned the taste of lead. In the 70's I shot a fair amount of pistol in a number of poorly ventalated pistol houses. To this day I can still remember the taste of lead, kind of a sweet taste....Jim

The Romans used Lead Azide as a table sweetner much like we use granulated sugar.

 

[rabbit03]

Excellent Excellent post!

I can relate to the sweet taste but I think it may be the result of the copper and not so much the lead. The reason is that in the 70's we used to make bright copper out of used copper in order to get more money from it (scrap metal bus). The taste was a sickening sweet taste especially noticalble when you smoked cigarrettes you could really tell it. We tumbled the copper in a cement mixer which would literally gring the copper against itself and the particles would become airborne and be inhaled. Also we handled lead each day for years cutting burning and getting the dust all over the place. I have yet to have any ill effects from any lead poisoning that I am aware of anyway. I may have accumulated amounts in my bones (that is where it collects also) but after amost 40 years ago like I say no ill effects.

I think the PC foks (Liberals) are mostly to blame. I mean come on we all know to not let our kids eat paint right and the lead in the atmosphere at an open range is probably no more than (most likely less than) an urban street in a metropolitan area. I still squeeze a split shot with my teeth, come on! Yeah the Romans had a bad time from drinking from all the pewter they had back then, good for the rest of the world though huh!

Not sure about why ducks or other foul would have shot in there bodies. The only reason I can think of is it may be like other birds where they need a type of gravel to help in digestion with the foods they eat. Maybe that is why! Can't remember who said it but they said lots of animals have died from a form of lead poisoning over the years, AMEN! LOLOL :rotf:

I wonder how you can get all that lead inhaled at an outdoor range when the bullets are wrapped in coppper (except for us of course) and it gets shot into a earthen berm (burm) SP. And copper drinking pipes were still being soldered with 50-50 and 60-40 into the 80's I know I was a plumber back then!

Most of it is a big hype and if we just use our commone sense we will be just fine,

rabbit03

 

[shmrck1]

deadeye,
I worked in a steel mill for 7 years,
almost always without breathing protection and have
smoked for almost 47 years. Had a little contact
with "agent orange" in country and have drank heavily for over 20 years
Outside of some arthriris problems and
high B/P I am reasonably healthy. My Dr. says it's a matter of geanes.
I would prefer to think I am one
of the "Lucky Ones".
I would not recommend my life style
to anyone. But at almost 61 I see friends and
people leaving all the time that led healthy lives. Go Figure.
snake-eyes

 

[Hoyt]

I think if you let it cool off it's not so bad. I used to rebuild car batteries way back before hard top batteries. Just heat around the cells and pull out the lead. What I hated was you couldn't sit down on the job..the acid would eat the seat out of your pants.

 

[gmww]

Well I got this funny thing growing out of my forehead that looks like a vegetable. I also have developed a strange tick to the right side of my face. All that said, I have no side effects to lead exposure! :rotf:

 

[TFoley]

Lead can be real bad for ya when it's moving in your direction at high speed, in small or large amounts, depending on the aim/intention, of the lead-slinging operative. I can tell ya from practical experience that it sure as h*** don't taste sweet, but it DO sting a whole lot, and is NOT to be recommended.

I survived, but of course, many do not. Lead IS harmful, folks, but so is 99% of everything on the planet.

tac in tokyo

 

[aragorn]

Geese especially are thought to eat lead shot if they see it in ploughed fields. That's the main reason why a dim view is taken of lead bird shot.

The following is not an argument for using lead shot over alternatives, but I have thought that the amount we typically shoot these days that falls into arable is likely to be small by comparison with the time up to say the mid 20th century, when farmers still hunted regularly on their own land for subsistence. On our own 100 acres, the amount of lead shot in the last couple of decades will be nothing like the previous 150 years, when there were no supermarkets or much cash. Also, the lead that appears on the surface of a ploughed field is not necessarly the most recent - look at how Indian artefacts, old potsherds etc get churned up. Even the smallest birdshot can survive almost indefinitely in certain soil conditions.

Not an argument against the anti-lead lobby, who are right to be concerned at reducing new lead emission and exposure where possible, but just an historical observation. Certainly whenever we've shot lead we've try to avoid fallout in our fields.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Heck, I been meltin and smeltin and lickin the lead off my fingers fer nigh 50 yars and aint hurt me none-- now what tha heck wus we talkin about? Oh yeah, lead, if tha bird is a flyin ya got to lead him a plenty or ya only get tailfeathers. Now dang it, who stole my coffee?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Heck, I been meltin and smeltin and lickin the lead off my fingers fer nigh 50 yars and aint hurt me none-- now what tha heck wus we talkin about? Oh yeah, lead, if tha bird is a flyin ya got to lead him a plenty or ya only get tailfeathers. Now dang it, who stole my coffee?

hee hee, you beet me I ben casstin led for 20 years or a dozen n it aint hurt me none or any cuz i aint ded yet and i like pickles

You should see the signs in Cascadilla Creek in Ithaca where Ithaca Gun used to test fire shotguns. You'd think you were in Chernobil. "DO NOT EAT, WALK, TOUCH OR CONTACT THE GROUND HERE AND BURN YOUR LEGS OFF IMMEDIATELY IF YOU DO!"

No more dangerous than cleaning a litterbox. Don't eat or handle food at the same time, have good ventilation and wash your hands afterwards.

Oh, and don't try to wipe up spilled lead in your lap with a paper towel.

 

[Slake]

They have made Nuclear Power..Bad..now they are working on SUV's, guns and anything else that they can...lead is only bad for you when it comes at you at a high velocity that you have no control over......sucks worse if its your own

 

[Zonie]

I know that most young people must have a lot of lead in them. One of my fathers favorite sayings when I was a teenager sleeping in late was
"GET THE LEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND GET UP!!!"

Zonie

 

[aragorn]

Re 'lefties' and the lead issue, I can't work out for the life of me why issues like this should have a political dimension in America. I can't see why a person's political persuasion, Democrat or Republican, should have any impact on his ability or inclination to evaluate the effect of lead exposure on himself or the environment. Maybe there would be a more sensible outcome if these kind of issues were not politicised in this way. Just a thought!