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Lead in your blood


Tennessee Snuffy

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all depends how high,, mos drs use the child regs and scare you with that, mine was 22,,, I just stopped breathing fumes and the dust from tumbler, (then went to ss pins and water)  mine came down easily

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37 minutes ago, Tennessee Snuffy said:

Folks

 

How many of you have recently or ever had you blood levels checked for lead?  We’re they high?

 

If yes and it was high,  what measures did you take during your reloading and shooting activities did you take?

 

Tennessee Snuffy

 

Stop casting bullets (free lead supply was drying up anyway).  Switched from dry brass tumbling to wet.

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Mine was 36 about 5 months ago.  I moved my tumbling outside, exercised more care about breathing the dust, started keeping Lead B Gone wipes in my range bag and using them after matches, started wearing gloves when cleaning guns, and wash my hands more often and more diligently.  I go back in tomorrow for a follow up primarily for cholesterol and BP, but I'll be asking for another lead test to see how I'm doing.  

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This was discussed at the Black Gold RO class. Cassalong Hopidy was our instructor and said his level was high. Steps he said he took was to wet tumble brass and wear disposable gloves. Hope he sees this post and comments.

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Search for several posts on this topic - it's an important one. There's a rather extensive white paper on the subject in the "DOCUMENTS/PAPERS" section of our web site at: www.PRVCatLazyArrow.com. It is entitled "Controlling Blood Lead Levels." The document is specific to cowboy shooters, is a free download, and has been recently updated to include more details about lead on our hands.

RR

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Mine was high end of normal range.

Gloves while cleaning, mask when sifting brass, hand washing.

My girls have always wanted to help with cleaning and reloading and I always told em no; I don't want any three-eyed grand kids.

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2 hours ago, Roger Rapid said:

Search for several posts on this topic - it's an important one. There's a rather extensive white paper on the subject in the "DOCUMENTS/PAPERS" section of our web site at: www.PRVCatLazyArrow.com. It is entitled "Controlling Blood Lead Levels." The document is specific to cowboy shooters, is a free download, and has been recently updated to include more details about lead on our hands.

RR

 

Thanks Roger.  Here is a direct link to that document:

http://www.prvcatlazyarrow.com/Controlling Blood-Lead V6.pdf

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I have mine checked at every physical.  My level a couple of years ago was 37.  It has since dropped to 11 at my last physical.  Nobody really knows what those numbers mean, but anything above 5 is considered above normal.  The first thing I did was start wearing a respirator when shooting bullseye indoors.  I stopped casting bullets.  I wash my hands after shooting or handling lead/ammunition in cold water.  I strip my clothes directly into the washer after shooting.  I try not to eat at the range, but sometimes that is difficult.  Brass is wet tumbled.  

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Mine stays pretty steady at 21, I have started using nitrile gloves during reloading, I have gone to new shot for shot shell loading (I was getting a lot of dust from reclaimed shot), I use gloves when taking the brass from the tumbler and rinsing it. I do wet tumble it. We both use dlead soap.to wash our hands after shooting.

kR

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To the Wire,

Been reloading for more than 40 years.

Until just the last few,never worried about lead levels.I always washed my hands after hand loading and tumbled brass in the detached shop,but never worried too much all the other ways we as shooters are exposed to lead.

In the last few years I've  been more careful about exposure and at my last two yearly physicals my lead levels were below a 6.That low even after casting and powder coating many thousands  of bullets,I feel I am extremely fortunate.

I do believe that lead absorption rates vary greatly between individuals. Maybe I'm just slower than most( I know that's true in lots of other areas,but that's an entirely different story).

Choctaw Jack 

 

 

 

 

 

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I work at an indoor range full time for the past 4 yrs. on the range teaching shooters all day and TO a couple times a month. I do not do my own reloading. Just got my level checked and it was 4.9, high end of normal. That was a surprise. I guess reloading is the primary culprit. 

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Speaking from first hand experience, do what ever you need to do to limit your exposure to lead. It can kill your Kidneys, and can give you Cancer. Use Polymer coated bullets, stop casting without good ventilation, wash your hands, and don't run the timer for extended periods of time.... hand it off after about 5 shooters and get back off the firing line. Use a wet tumbler too. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them... well it just might. If your lead level is high, get Chelation therapy to remove the lead faster than any other method. It just might save your life, or at least prolong it. 

 

Snakebite

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Mine was 33.  I get it tested every 3-6 months now.  Last reading was 22--but it has gone down and up and down more than once.  I test again in September.    Would like to have it back in the teens.  The measures I have taken are:

1.  I went to wet tumbling, with stainless steel media (inhalation).

2.  I try to be meticulous about washing my hands after shooting before I eat anything (ingestion).  Occasionally, I forget, like when someone offers me Skittles during a match.

3.  I wear nitrile gloves when I reload, handle ammo (e.g., put rounds in loading strips night before match), or clean guns.

4.  I put all clothes worn during shooting in the wash.

5.  I use a Dillon 650 and put a spent primer chute and tube on it that carries punched out primers to a 5-gallon bucket--put a cover over that so only the tube going into the bucket creates an opening.

6.  I try hard to lay off running the timer these days, though like Capt. BIll, I am not always successful.  I love running the timer and frequently find myself doing so for one reason or another.  I do believe that inhalation of lead during TO activities is the single greatest source of blood lead in my case FWIW, as refraining from that activity seems to have produced the greatest reduction in BLL readings.    I don't believe absorption through the skin is much of a factor.
Good luck--it's not anything to be too casual about and I wouldn't care to end up in chelation therapy.

 

Cass

 

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I guess within reason, I don't care. I am going to die anyway. I just hope it is timed pretty close to the money running out....

you young folk can disregard this message....

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How many of you test fire your weapons with only primers? It is the primers that contain lead styphnate. Shooting indoors with wax bullets is very hazardous due to the lead styphnate in those primers.  Doing all the things suggested will also help but it is the primers and the smoke from it that is real bad. I still dry tumble my brass but cover the top with a towel and paper plate so dust will not escape. I also purchased an air filter from Grizzley so it runs while I tumble. Also adding car wax to the walnut media will also help keep dust down. Having said that when my lead levels hit 16 my internist became concerned. My wife is a pediatrician and went to the yearly meetings at Childrens Mercy. Well long story short she learned that many vitamins are not FDA regulated and lead was showing up in many brands. Well I was taking many different herbal supplements. Upon stopping these substances my lead level dropped to 6 and have not changed any of my loading habits.  If your taking herbal supplements stop unless you are sure of its purity.  Stay healthy all and keep on shootin!!!!

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Just had mine tested for first time. It was 4, been reloading for 7 yrs, wear nitrile gloves when reloading and tumble outside.

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I haven't been recently tested, but Roger Rapid and Snakebite scared me into taking precautions.  I do all of the things described above, and in addition, I wear a PM95 mask when pouring shotgun pellets into the loader.  It makes significant lead dust.   I do the filling of the SS loader flask outside.  I keep the cloth lead bags in zip lock plastic bags, and dispose of them promptly when empty.  I wear disposable gloves when loading and handling lead products.   I throw the boxes that lead bullets come in away, no matter how useful they look for storing other stuff.   They're cheap to by bulk from Uline. com. 

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21 hours ago, Cassalong Hopidy said:

I use a Dillon 650 and put a spent primer chute and tube on it that carries punched out primers to a 5-gallon bucket--put a cover over that so only the tube going into the bucket creates an opening.

 

DOH! That's what that's for.  The 900 I bought used (from here a year or so back) came with a tube that I couldn't figure out what it was for, then I was trying to figure out how get the damn spent primer catch back on the bottom...  I'll put that on and get something to put the spent primers in...  (Right now there is a piece of paper taped to it forcing the spent primers into the big catch bin...)

 

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23 hours ago, Paulo Pistolero said:

 Well long story short she learned that many vitamins are not FDA regulated and lead was showing up in many brands. Well I was taking many different herbal supplements. Upon stopping these substances my lead level dropped to 6 and have not changed any of my loading habits.  If your taking herbal supplements stop unless you are sure of its purity.  Stay healthy all and keep on shootin!!!!

 

This is horrifying!!!

I am taking some supplements to try to get my BLL down. Now I find out they may have lead in them too.

So what brands are we talking here?

Don't say Great Value.:lol:

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2 hours ago, Waimea said:

 

This is horrifying!!!

I am taking some supplements to try to get my BLL down. Now I find out they may have lead in them too.

So what brands are we talking here?

Don't say Great Value.:lol:

Prolly some outlaw brand! ;)

 

Kajun

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I asked my Kaiser GP to include a lead test in my next quarterly blood draw.
At first, the lab was freaking out and demanding an Occupational Lead Exposure report (I live in CA).

After they found out I was retired, they backed off that demand.
They DO pry and want to know why I want the test, so they can "adjust the test" to that need.

Here in CA, they have questions about you feeling "unsafe" at home, or being "depressed".
These can be input into confiscating your firearms.

I told my GP that we are competition shooters and I want a lead baseline before I start doing serious reloading.
 

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1 hour ago, bgavin said:

I asked my Kaiser GP to include a lead test in my next quarterly blood draw.
At first, the lab was freaking out and demanding an Occupational Lead Exposure report (I live in CA).

After they found out I was retired, they backed off that demand.
They DO pry and want to know why I want the test, so they can "adjust the test" to that need.

Here in CA, they have questions about you feeling "unsafe" at home, or being "depressed".
These can be input into confiscating your firearms.

I told my GP that we are competition shooters and I want a lead baseline before I start doing serious reloading.
 

CA is a different planet, to be sure.  I went through the same kinds of psycho-questioning with my Doc., even without mentioning lead or shooting.   I will NEVER EVER put anything about my shooting into any medical or other records.  That is why I've not been tested for lead.  I simply employed every remedial step to avoid exposure, and I figure to take my chances.  Like drinking soda pop and eating sugar, everybody can still choose, right? At least so far.  

 

I am even reluctant to mention my shooting here on the Wire.  Computers, connectivity, social media, government snooping, stupid elected legislators and leftist lawyers are going to end up our nemesis.  When you add things like Alexa (home snooping access) and Artificial Intel to the equation, who can predict where it ends up.   

Paranoid? No.  just experienced in government. 

 

Conspiracy theorist? 

You bet.  

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Added thought. 

As long as you can confine your lead to the reloading and other actual lead handling areas, you retain ability to clean it up and address exposure.   But once you spread it throughout your home, yard, vehicles and general surroundings, it becomes a much less feasible clean up.   So dispose of containers promptly and do not try to store them.  Remove clothing immediately to a washer before moving or sitting in your home.    Clean up spilled or dropped bullets, cases, primers, etc. Immediately.  Pour lead products over a container that can be removed and properly cleaned or disposed of. 

In short, remain thoughtful about lead exposure and particle dispersal in every step of every lead handling operation.  

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I'm stocked up on Hi-Tek coated bullets, so handling bare lead will be minimal.
The comments about tumbling cases are noted.

I'm well versed in handling photographic chemicals, and will ventilate the same for reloading.

"CA is a different planet, to be sure. "

Indeed.  Keep your fingers crossed... they filed the Recall papers against Newsom today.

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24 minutes ago, bgavin said:

Indeed.  Keep your fingers crossed... they filed the Recall papers against Newsom today.

Yes! 

 

Coated bullets, are fine.  But also think SG lead sources--Stray pellets, shed dust from canisters, dust on the reloader itself, shot bags-- there are a lot of exposure sources.  

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I heard of a guy so full of lead that he used his d!@k as a pencil, Jefe.  Courtsey of the Three Amigos and El Guapo.

 

 

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On 8/1/2019 at 7:32 PM, Waimea said:

 

This is horrifying!!!

I am taking some supplements to try to get my BLL down. Now I find out they may have lead in them too.

So what brands are we talking here?

Don't say Great Value.:lol:

The best brands are Jarrow, gaia but even then all bets are off. I try to find out where the vitamins are manufactured. Anything from China I consider rat poison. Best bet is to call any 1-800 number on the bottle and ask questions. How they answer will tell a lot.

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I never gave lead a thought. I think back on all the times I ate while reloading or shooting, no hand washing. Vibrating case cleaner indoors, fanning the dust with my hands.

 

I felt fine. Ignorance is bliss.

 

And I was a dumbass.

 

I would have never got checked if it wasn't for the Wire posts. Yep, this Wire. Where you can read about contests between Ginger or Mary Ann. beef jerky, or some legislative bozo going to save me from myself. And where you can glean some good information that might just keep you around a day or two longer to annoy your spouse.

 

At my semi-annual blood draw, primarily to watch the A1C, I asked for a lead screen too. No problem. Then the tests came back.

 

We have a problem.

 

Lead levels should not be higher than 4.9. I rolled up a 7.3.

 

Got my undivided attention immediately. If I would have hit 10 or above, they must notify Public Health.

 

Literally ordered a wet tumbler from the Doctor's parking lot. Also a container of lead "diaper wipes." Nitrile gloves. Religious hand washing. Eat BEFORE shooting or loading ammo.

 

Next test is in December. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I have a great many faults. Ingratitude is not one of them.

 

A toast to my SASS Wire pards. Without your posts on lead I would have never had it checked.

 

Salute!

 

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