Apologies if this has been covered before. Does anybody else that shoots a lot in an indoor range worry about the levels of lead they are probably ingesting? Surely some of that stuff is vaporized in the process of firing a gun, no? I know most indoor ranges are supposed to have good ventilation, but still.... The stuff can't be good for you. Does anybody wear or considering wearing a mask or filter of some sort?
People who regularly visit indoor shooting ranges should get their blood checked once in a while. It's a cheap and easy way to make sure you're not getting a lead overdose. I had elevated lead levels at one point, but I wasn't just a frequent shooter-- I also worked at an indoor range / gun shop. I've heard of a couple people on this board who have had unusually high levels of lead in their blood. Yes, a mask would help. But before I start wearing one, I'd get my bood tested to see if there's even a problem. If there is a problem, then you can use the mask, get tested again next month, and see how much it helped.
What do you do if you have elevated levels ? Some treatment or just avoid the source ? I'm a guy who spent too much time years ago soldering... and teeth are for holding the solder while you work Now they have even taken lead out of solder, amazing. Seems like everything (we believe, we do, or we know) has been turned upside down in the last thirty years, and not all for the better !
Here's a few past threads that discussed it. It is quite possible to get lead poisoning from shooting lead ammo in a poorly ventilated area, as well as from fumes when casting your own bullets. Ventilation is key to prevention. viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18474 viewtopic.php?f=4&t=43402
A regular dust and particulate mask will do little to nothing for lead. The only "mask" that is appropriate for lead exposure is a properly fitted respirator, with hepa-filters.
Ingesting orange juice, high iron foods and calcium rich foods help block lead from absorbing into your body.
Some of the guys that I've shot IDPA with wore masks with a good filter like they sell at the paint store or the home depot. Another option is to shoot outdoors or at a range that has very good ventilation. The new Sharpshooters range which is opening in January has a full airchange every 1.5 minutes which means that the air you breathed at the firing line has made it down to the traps and into the filters in 1.5 minutes. I was in there walking the range last week and you can feel the air moving downrange. If you have kids, take off your clothes before you let them hug you and crawl all over you. You may even want to consider washing range clothes in it's own load and definitely separate from kids clothes. The amount of lead on our pants and shirts may not be enough to affect us, but little kids put their hands on your pants and then in their mouths and less dosage is needed to affect them. I also think it is a good idea to not clean a firearm anywhere near food prep or eating areas. Lead poisoning causes neural development problem in kids and sexual dysfunction in adults. I recall from a OSHA class a guy who followed all the safety procedures at work and was in fine health, but his child died from some kind of poisoning due to contamination from hugging him when he came home. Nobody thought about the contamination he was bringing home on his clothes till it was too late. I don't recall what the contaminant was. I know that this may seem like overkill to some people but I believe that being safe is smart.
Srsly though to keep the thread intact: My GF tells me her dad was an avid reloader and she and her sister used to play & draw with the lead on the floor of the garage. Now she's worried it might have made her dumb.
I read that tumbling brass indoors is not a good idea because of dust created. There are as many that say it is safe as those that warn against it. I never considered tumblers as a hazard, but it is just as easy to do it outside.
Lots of apple pectin is probably the best natural single solution to helping rid the body of lead. The other foods above will help, too, but middle-aged men should be careful about overloading with iron - it's just not good for the heart.
I worried a lot about this when my daughter was born, so much so that I really cut down on my trips to the range. Now that she is a little older and I am a little less paranoid about her, I am back to normal. I just make sure to wash everything and leave my shoes outside when I get home.
My brother and I had Crossman .22 pump air rifles growing up. They were single shot affairs and I recall we would carry our spare rounds in our mouth. It was convenient and the saliva would also lube the pellets. Perhaps that is our current problem We did not know any better and apparently neither did our family. Oh well, I am an expert marksman and hold down a responsible job in high tech some 30 years later. I understand there is something called chelation therapy if you need to clean that stuff out of your system.
Osteopath Dr's do a lot of chelation. Tremendous placebo benefit to the patient and a good safe money maker for the Dr. How did they ever get to be called doctors anyway ?
Apparently when used as a therapy for heart disease chelation is bogus but it is a recognized treatment for heavy metal poisoning. "Chelation therapy is a recognized treatment for heavy metal (such as lead) poisoning. EDTA, injected into the blood, will bind the metals and allow them to be removed from the body in the urine. Chelation therapy is not approved by the FDA to treat coronary artery disease, but some physicians and alternative medicine practitioners use it for this purpose. Up to now, there have been no adequate, controlled, published scientific studies using currently approved scientific methodology to support this therapy for cardiovascular disease. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American College of Cardiology all agree with the American Heart Association on this point." http://www.americanheart.org/presenter. ... ifier=4493