Lead Exposure

[georgeld]

Yes, thank you Pat.

The only two things I see in that list that don't pertain to me is: I'm not dead yet, and sure as hell not anemic.

Last spring the VA doc was testing my blood every month to make sure I was taking the dope she was prescribing and not selling/trading it for sex or something. I requested they test for lead while at it. Don't recall the exact numbers but, mine was one number less than the max. Have been thinking about having it tested again the next blood draw.

I've read in the past that lead accumulates in your system and never can be reduced. What some of you guys have said is contrary to that. I'm curious about it all now and will try to ask her next appt.

Another interesting thread.

[Ricochet]

It's not true that it can never be eliminated. It can be reduced by chelation treatment with EDTA. I'm sure there's a slow natural elimination process, but I'm not that familiar with it. Lead shows up in hair.

[versifier]

That's if you have any hair.

[imashooter2]

LOL! It's a rare man that doesn't have hair. Not all of it grows on heads...

[walltube]

let's get focused on a problem far more serious than some niggling amount of lead in our blood stream, organs, hair, etc.

FIY, there is a gigantic hole in the South Pole's ozone layer!

According to the Algoreian School of Scientific Bovinal Studies we all gonna die of massive amounts of Gamma ray exposure. Real soon. And our Silver Stream Brethren now living in N.Z. and Oz are gonna get it first. BIG TIME!! Lead is our only chance for survival!!!

MSN news gave me the heads-up on this. Wouldn't be no MSN without Big Al Ya know


Now sipping the Purple Sack liquid as an extra-preventative measure

W'tube

[floodgate]

walltube:

Actually, the latest I have heard is that - after the Freons and other CFC's (?) were banned some twenty years back, the ozone layer "hole" over the South Pole seems to have been filling back in.

So, maybe THAT ban was worth-while; but the jury's still out on it. And many of the others are pure nonsense. I believe that active volcanoes put out enormous amounts of CO2, but no-one seems to comment on that. Volcano filters, anyone?

floodgate

[grumpy one]

Doug, the last I heard the volcanoes put out vast quantities of sulphur dioxide, which has a reverse greenhouse effect, so the volcanoes are actually helping the problem. See, we should all try to learn to love acid rain.

[Patrick L]

What's the highest lead exposer for cast booliteers is case tumbling. Do NOT do it in the house, and make sure it's handled properly.

Please elaborate ? I'm not aware of this one.

BTW, I take basic precautions (fresh air vent, don't eat, drink, wipe nose etc while casting) and wash THOROUGHLY after a session, plus clothes straight into the wash. I had lead levels checked about 10 yrs ago, and the doc said I was lower than the typical guy on the street (didn't say the number though.)

[Four Fingers of Death]

Lead styphinate was used in the primers. The dust is very noxious (or was). Mick.

[grumpy one]

Lead styphinate was used in the primers. The dust is very noxious (or was). Mick.

Surely the problem is even worse, then, when we scrape the residue out of primer pockets.

[walltube]

I agree with your doubts. What alleged role CFC refrigerants play(ed) in destroying the ozone layer have too many voices with too many conflicting arguments to gain any serious attention from me.

Volcano eruptions?? Who monitered Mt. Pinatubo's blow-up for airborne emmisions?

Hair sampling for heavy metal presence in mammals can give a history and degree of contamination. Both hair and blood samples have in the past revealed organic arsenic, cadmium and lead in my bod. 90% of this was traced to fossil fueled power generation boilers. The other 10% from various petrochemical refineries, copper smelters and steel mills. Rendering WW,s and casting boolits as a hobby pose a far less threat to my health than my former occupation. Tinsel Fairies are another subject.

W'tube

[FISH4BUGS]

It was 8 ( I guess that is low - certainly within the acceptable range). I had my annual physical a few months ago and asked the Doc to check my lead level in my blood. He was surprised that I had asked and wondered why I would want to. I explained that I cast bullets and melt down wheel weights. We talked a few minutes about the process of scrounging, smelting, alloying, collecting H&G moulds, bullet casting, lubing and sizing. When I got to the part about reloading for handguns and loading for and shooting submachineguns, he REALLLY got interested. He said we should go shooting sometime.........I will - I might make another full auto convert.
At any rate, the danger is not from casting, it is from your hands. Every time I take a break, I wash my hands thoroughly. The earlier advice of don't touch your eyes, nose or mouth when casting is right on the money.
Watch those fumes when smelting - THAT can be nasty stuff. I always do it outside in the driveway. Fortunately the nearest house is 300 yards away so no one complains. Now I have to worry about putting too much lead weight on those 150 year old barn floor joists! Wouldn't THAT be a kick in the pants - the floor collapses into the basement because of MY hobby!

[robertbank]

On the issue of the ozone hole. Latest studies don't seem to indicate the hole is closing:

Antarctic ozone hole biggest yet: U.S. government

Updated Fri. Oct. 20 2006 9:11 AM ET
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- year's Antarctic ozone hole is the biggest ever, U.S. government scientists said Thursday.

The so-called hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone - a form of oxygen - in the upper atmosphere that protects life on Earth by blocking ultraviolet rays from the sun.

Scientists say human-produced gases such as bromine and chlorine damage the layer causing the hole. That is the reason many compounds such as spray-can propellants have been banned in recent years.

"From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles (27.4 million square kilometres)," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. That is larger than the area of North America.

In addition, satellite measurements observed a low reading of 85 Dobson units of ozone on Oct. 8. That is down from a thickness of 300 Dobson units in July.

The ozone hole is considered to be the area with total column ozone below 220 Dobson Units. A reading of 100 Dobson Units means that if all the ozone in the air above a point were brought down to sea-level pressure and cooled to freezing it would form a layer one centimetre thick. A reading of 250 Dobson Units translates to a layer about 2.5 centimetres thick.

In a critical layer of air about 12 to 20 kilometres above the surface, the measurement was only 1.2 Dobson units, down from 125 in July.

"These numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said David Hofmann, director of the Global Monitoring Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory. "The depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears that the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter."

The size and thickness of the ozone hole varies from year to year, becoming larger when temperatures are lower.

Because of international agreements banning ozone-depleting substances, researchers calculated that these chemicals peaked in Antarctica in 2001 and have been declining. However, many of them have extremely long lifetimes once released into the air.

While there are year-to-year variations, scientists expect a slow recovery of the ozone layer by the year 2065.