Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Lead Poisoning from Bullets

Wait a minute, Sebastian told me a long time ago the lead from bullets was practically harmless. Even today he posted about it. I believed him and thought the only way to get lead poisoning from bullets was for them to pierce your skin and enter your body the hard way. Now I don't know what to think.

5 comments:

  1. Do we know the worker's lead levels?

    How do they compare to popcorn workers?

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  2. It's hard to get lead poisoning from a bullet, even if you're shot.

    The lead has to be small enough to be absorbed into the blood stream. What you get lead poisoning from is the lead particulate that is formed when the lead bullet hits a hard backstop and parts of it nearly vaporizes.

    That's why those who clean gun ranges are likely to get lead poisoning. Their job is to clean up that particulate. On a modern gun range, the shooter is rarely if ever exposed to that particulate in any dangerous quantities. The air on the firing line is exhausted and filtered while fresh is brought in. Also, a lot of new ranges use wet backstops that further eliminate airborne lead particulate.

    And like FWM said, there is no E.N. Gun Range.

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  3. AztecRed inadvertently showing his incredibly self-centered world view.

    "On a modern gun range, the shooter is rarely if ever exposed to that particulate in any dangerous quantities."

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  4. Ummm, Mike, when people work to harvest waste lead or replenish the berm those people often wear haz-mat suits to limit lead exposure.

    So no, he just can think...and you can't.

    Every club I've ever shot at has rules posted that you are not to touch the berm for safety reasons.

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