Lead article

[Bloodman14]

Hey, all
I have no idea how to post a link, so I'll write this out; give it a look:

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/lead.htm

Pay close attention to the "Lead as a Poison" section.
This stuff is actually pretty safe!:-D

[Bloodman14]

Hey, it posted! Now how did I do that?

[ez4545]

Good article!

In the article, I found the following quote below to be very interesting!

"Evidence of cupellation was found in excavations of the Athenian silver mines at Laurium, so it dated from at least the 6th century BCE. These mines produced silver-bearing lead."


Bill

[BerdanIII]

Good article, my fanny! I used to work as an environmental technician for a secondary lead smelting company with plants in 5 cities.

The prime methods for lead poisoning are ingestion and/or inhalation of the dust. How can lead not be poisonous to ingest if children get lead poisoning from eating lead-based paint?

Since I worked part-time in the smelters and part-time in the office, I changed uniforms and showered up to three times a day at work to keep from contaminating me and the people in the corporate offices. I wore a respirator at all times in the smelters to keep from breathing the lead dust that was everywhere.

Lead poisoning affects the nervous system to be sure, but it doesn't do your liver much good, either.

Sanitation and ventilation are the only ways to prevent lead poisoning. Don't eat, drink or smoke while casting. Wash your hands and face thoroughly (or better yet, shower) after handling lead and casting. Wet-mop the floor of the casting area; sweeping only stirs up the dust. I definitely don't recommend do-it-yourself chelation as put forth in the article.

The author may know metallurgy (I didn't bother to check) but he doesn't lead toxicology.

[Mack Heath]

Good article, my fanny! I used to work as an environmental technician for a secondary lead smelting company with plants in 5 cities.

The prime methods for lead poisoning are ingestion and/or inhalation of the dust. How can lead not be poisonous to ingest if children get lead poisoning from eating lead-based paint?
.

Just one point regarding kids and lead-bearing paints. The lead in those paints isn't in elemental form. It is in a state that is more easily digested, and threfore enters the blood easier. Also, it tastes sweet, which is the one reason kids like to put it in their mouths. From what I have read, elemental lead is relatively safe. In fact, from a biocompatibility point of view, the bigger the chunk, the safer it tends to be. Finely divided particles, like lead dust, have a much great surface area per unit mass and are therefore less well tolerated. Remember, all of the reactions by the body have to take place at the surface. The greater the surface are, thefaster and the more completely uptake occurs.

[JKH]

LEad in dust certainly is an issue, more so than in solids. I am an EPA licensed lead based paint risk asseser/inspector working with federal grant funds for owner occupied rehabilitation. The number one issue is lead dust, containment and disposal, our contractors are required to use lead safe work practices (for interim controls, our programs do not do abatement per se) to prevent or minimize the generation of lead bearing dust and to remove any frictions surfaces (i.e. windows and doors primarily) the will create it in a home (of course there is a lot of envirenmental lead bearing dust that is mostly from older leaded gasoline but millions of tons of lead was put into the air and ground before unleaded became mandatory and still creates lead/dust hazards in window wells and sills.

We are required to repair any deteriorated lead paint surfaces but our main goal is to find and eliminate lead dust hazards as that is the main avenue of ingestion, as the gentleman above who worked in the industry stated, make sure you washe your hands, etc./shower when you handle even solid lead (acids and oils in your skin will actually break it down), keep casting temps as low as will work, lead will vaporize above 1100 deg's F (thats why our contractors cant usse heat guns unleass they are well below that threashold, usually no more than about 750). Ventilate, breathing it in via dust or vapor is not good, uptake is a b!tch as a man who works around tritium gas once said ;^ ) Just be smart and clean about using lead and you will be fine.

Now, the EPA action level for adults is fairly high as our brains are developed so for us it is mostly the posioning of our organs to be concerend about, the EPA action level is about 40 micrograms per deciliter, BUT, for children it is 10, why? because kids under 7 are still developing and their brains can be very negatively impacted with a measurable loss of IQ although it has been shown that with treatment (chelation in extreme cases) and prevention of further intake, most of the deliterious effects will disipate (wont save you from a law suit though if a kid gets poisoned on your job!). Adults that hit the action level are typically removed from the work environemnet that caused the issue or so many months depending on levels and have regular blood tests conducted to monitor blood lead levels, if all goes well within a few to 6 months approximately then the blood lead level will drop to a safe point and the employer will have gone through a grueling ordeal with the EPA and OSHA to find out how and why the employee got poisoned and will have to take steps to remedy the situation.

Lead on average in the forms we use it is for all intents and purposes a safe element, only when it is handled in an inapropriate manner generating vapor or dust (yes, direct ingesting of lead is not good but it will pass through your system fairly fast and has to be in fine form shale we say, large pieces will pass for the most part without causing lasting harm), take the prcautions suggested and you will be fine but remember, kids are most vulnerable and even if your okay you could be spreading a lot of lead dust through your work or casting clothes and even your own person especially if you work in a lead related field or do work with lead based paint in any manner, dont hug your kids or sit on the couch wearing those nasty clothes and for heavens sake take a shower! Just respect lead for what it is and what it is capable of and you will be fine, it does occur naturally just about everywhere but like uranium and radon gas it doesnt make it safe (just like that stimnulants, most people dont understand that the vast majority of drugs start as a plant, anyone ever hear of purple foxglove?).

Have fun, be safe and good shooting!

Jeff

P.S. please dont ding me to hard on spelling, gramar or punctualization, I'm just a country boy from the mountains ;^ )

[Shiloh]

Use some common sense.

Don't eat paint chips no matter how sweet they taste. Don't eat while casting. Vent or cast outside, cast in a garage or outbuilding that is ventilated.

Shiloh