I just had mine tested the other day, and I was finally back to normal.
I used to clean out the lead traps at a local shooting range. As you can image there was lead in pretty much all its forms, and despite wearing a respirator, Tyvek Suite, gloves, boots, and glasses, my blood lead levels spiked. I was up 15mg/dL which was where the doctor was a concerned but it wasn’t high enough to treat. (The doc said that they don’t typically treat until its higher the 20mg/dL, but they are concerned when it is over 5mg/dL)
Yes, I washed my hands and face with special heavy metal removing soap after cleaning out the range. The exchange for cleaning out the lead trap was free access to the range and all the free lead I could want.
When it was discovered that it was high, as did everything we could to bring it down. I drank milk on the regular basis, I tried being more careful on the clean up, making sure proper fit of the mask and PPE, as well as drinking plenty of fluids to try and “flush” my system.
Nothing I did seemed to work. The only thing that brought it down was stopping the exposure (I moved, so I couldn’t do it anymore) and time.
I still cast, I still take precautions when I am working with my inventory recovered lead from the range, but my blood lead levels have returned to normal.
I think the most dangerous form of lead is the stuff we can’t see, the powder form. Working over a casting pot and handling ingots (as a hobby, on an occasional basis) isn’t enough exposure to spike blood lead levels. But if your working with material that has any sort of powdered lead, the you can get yourself into trouble if you aren’t wearing a mask approved for heavy metal dust.
The half-life of lead in soft tissue is pretty short, weeks to months if I remember right, but if it’s high enough for long enough to get into your bones then the half life is years.
Most clinics will do a heavy metal blood test if you ask for it, and personally I recommend people who are thinking of working with lead to get tests prior to working with it to establish a baseline. Then get tested six months later to see if there is a change. It doesn’t need to be a monthly test for us hobby folks, but if your doing it commercially, there may be benefit to testing on a more regular basis.
Sorry for the long post, having lived through the scare, I figured I share.
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