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Back in the 80's I worked at an indoor range, loaded ammo, and was the firearms training officer for the police dept. My Dr. checked my lead level, and twice I had to have chelation therapy to remove the lead from my blood. I stopped working at the range, have retired from the PD, and only load ammo for myself, usually using jacketed bullets. I'm okay now. Bill
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Doctor called yesterday with my results. 3.2! And I had blood drawn on Monday after I cast on Sunday afternoon.
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Is 3.2 good or bad? Is that in mcg?
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"I've never been tested, but DO show symptoms"
I can't stop the craving to scrounge lead.. :mrgreen:
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3.2 mg/Dl (micrograms per deciliter) is a great number. My doctor told me that 0-20 is the generally accepted "normal" range.
Mike
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My MD said under 10. He's conservative in a lot of ways!
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That's good news.. :drinks:
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poll are you poisoned
Have been casting for 35 years and just tested the first time. Doctor reported that I tsted Low/normal. Yowza! I was worried!
Neil
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Hummm... I know a lot of animals that died of lead posioning and they never casted any boolits!
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ive played around with lead quite a while (20 years or so) either casting for fishing weights/lures or bullets as well.......never been checked. But its not the lead im worried about its the organo-phosphates from pesticides from my previous career working in agriculture....ive been dusted a few times while in fields taking samples! Those chemicals are quite nasty....:)
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I've been pouring my own bullets for more than 30 years and have poured 10s of thousands of bullets for 9MM and 44Mag plus a few 3006. I was going in for my 6 month checkup and with so much racket about lead poisoning and how toxic it is, I decided to ask my doctor if he would include on my blood test, a test for lead in my system. He agreed and the tests were done. To my surprise, my lead levels on a scale of 0-24 was .4. Point 4 Wow, the doctor said, that's nothing. I attribute this to always using a fan to blow fumes away from my face, using a flux that cuts down on smoke such as mervalux, (available from Brownells) and of course, not eating, smoking etc., without washing your hands after handling lead.. My tests were done in March, 2008 and my mind is eased, knowing that if I just use a little common sense, I have nothing to fear.
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Well if everything goes well when I die you guys can just melt me down, mold me into bullets and shoot me into a dirt bank to bury me.:Fire::drinks:
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lead
I have not been tested yet, but will mention it next time I have a appointment... I think most cases of lead poisoning is because of lead paint and residual lead around some factories. specially the lead paint when it chips off. there was a battery factory in many larger towns back in the past, and you can imagine how much lead was slingin in those places and still is in the ground around the plants...
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I was the "lucky 13th" poster on this thread when it was first started, and my lead level was 2. A year has gone by, and my annual lead testing (which piggybacks on my 4X's a year Cholesterol testing) showed a: 2. No change. :Fire:
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Got my results back today and it was 17 ug/dL on a scale of 0-19. That scale is "enviromental exposure" and is anything <20. Occupational exposure was 40. I guess that means if you work in that enviroment you need a move if 40 or above.
I don't consider myself a completely "safe" smelter. I imagine that may be where the level comes from. I might start wearing a respirator in the future since I did buy one a week ago.
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Perhaps I should get tested.
I was a "burner" for nine years. That's flame and plasma cutting steel in a manufacturing plant. Running up to six torches at a time through plate steel liberates all the trace elements in the kerf. I've had the heavy metal exposer equivalent to a welder with two hundred years on the job.
When I was a teenager I used to work for a painter using lead based paint on grain bins and barn roofs.
This boolit casting doesn't worry me much.
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I finnally remembered to ask my Dr to check mine when I went in and he made a big deal about it like why should I be concered, what am I thinking that I should need such a test and so on. Anyway all was good, mine was 3.
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Lead poisoning ? Isnt that the intended end of vile 2 legged preditors ? [smilie=1:
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When I was doing commercial casting my lead level went up to 40 because the collator for the lubrisizer had a slot to release trash that was at the height of my nose and while sizing bullets I was inhaling lead dust. After discovering the problem and installing a collector my levels were reduced to about 15 when last checked in 1994.
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Interesting that something simple is all it takes. Simple fix too.