Blood lead levels at 5.0ug/ml

[cjsoccer3]

Thought it’d be interesting to share. Over the summer / spring without any smelting, I go to a local outdoor range and shoot for about 5 hours every weekend. A flintlock is all I shoot.

I’ve done some tinkering like cone the barrel, but that’s all. I’d say over 4 months I shot 100 round ball and 400 rounds of bird shot on the skeet / trap range. Got my lead levels checked for the first time and they are out of range.

Really odd as I use delead and wash my hands afterward. Anyone have experience with this?

Seems like it’s not terrible. Lead poisoning starts around 40ug. Health effects at 10ug. I just need to be careful and clean my act up somehow. Really surprised because I do wash my hands after with special soaps everytime I shoot or clean guns.

 

[SOLANCO]

How old is your home? Any lead piping in the water supply? Don't recall the specifics, but in certain circumstances water will pick up lead.

 

[BillyC]

Since this is your first test you might have had this baseline level for years and it has nothing to do with your shooting. If you continue to shoot for a few more months at the same rate and your lead level increases then I would say it’s from the shooting, but that seems highly unlikely since there are members on here that have literally shot for half a century or more and haven’t died from lead poisoning.

 

[ETipp]

Not from a few trips to the gun range. If the test is accurate, there was some other way that lead made it into your system. Food, drinks, inhalation, more prolonged exposure to lead or lead dust, etc.

 

[ZUG]

I used to be a serious bullseye pistol, highpower rifle, and an ATA trap shooter for many many years and have never had an issue with lead health problems. I also cast my own bullets. I do know of friends that have tested high on lead levels from a LOT of indoor pistol shooting. Their doctor told them to lay off shooting for a year and then see what their lead levels are. At the end of a year their lead levels were OK.

 

[hanshi]

I'm in a situation where I have my blood checked every three months and so far NO heavy metals at all have made it into my system. I started casting in the mid 1960s and use normal precautions. Something else is going on and has nothing to do with your shooting.

 

[Brokennock]

I've had lead level tests years ago in the 70s. State was shocked I was alive when they called the ordering physician for more info .
I had been working on various ranges, a lot of them indoors, for many years, and honestly hadn't been strictly following lead safe protocols.
I'd have to agree with @BillyC that you likely had a high baseline already from some other environmental factors.
Also, I put no stock of faith in any of those "special" soaps. Biggest mistake most people make when washing their hands after possible lead handling is not the soap they use, it is using warm to hot water. Wash the hands with cool water so you don't open the pores and capillaries.

 

[smo]

I worked in and around the Industrial painting industry for close too 40 years…
We were trained in lead abatement procedures starting in the early 90’s..

In all those years I never had a high lead test..However I do believe it was because of being probably trained and using good hygiene..
Don’t smoke & don’t eat & scrub those nasty hands good!

We were required too get blood level testing done twice yearly.

 

[64Springer]

Probably "Lead Dust". Horrible stuff.

It floats and wafts and travels and settles everywhere. All over your floors and furniture. In your mugs and on your dishes.

It's a fine yellow or brown powder. Kids end up eating it. Pets end up eating it. Pregnant women end up eating it. Then the kids turn out like something from Deliverance.

Lead Dust can come from anywhere too. Your neighbor. The guy down the street. Someone casting balls three towns over with the wind blowing the wrong direction.

Can't be too careful with Lead Dust.

Everything I just said is complete nonsense. But there are folks out there that believe this nonsense. And it's why lead is being banned everywhere now.

Don't lay our PBJ sammiches on our lead pots and we'll all be fine.

 

[wiscoaster]

.... Wash the hands with cool water so you don't open the pores and capillaries.

Good info. News to me. Thanks!!

 

[wiscoaster]

I think ill effects from exposure to environmental toxins has a lot more to do with personal genetics than it has to do with absolute ambient exposure levels or even blood and tissue lab test levels. In other words, if you feel well, don't worry about it, and by all means, don't go crying to your doctor about it. They'll find some reason to justify your visit. Even if just to tell you your cholesterol is too high.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Better mask up!

 

[Jim K]

When I was young, I would keep lead splitshot under my tongue while trout fishing so I could change weights as water levels changed. My buddy showed me that. Lol. Probably 45 years ago.

 

[Brokennock]

In other words, if you feel well, don't worry about i

Wellllllll,,,,,
Define "feel well."
I wouldn't say I felt "sick" or unwell from it, at least not at the time. And the serious health issues I was having were unrelated.
But......
I was having symptoms, I just didn't realize what they were. In a kid with "lead poisoning" they might call it "behavioral issues." Short temper, irritability, trouble with concentration, kind of agitated most of the time, frustrated easily. I didn't realize what this was, thought it was just me and some "learned behavior" until I spoke with someone I was working with (on the ranges in the shooting sector) who had high lead levels as a kid and he described it to me and I had kind of an "ah ha," moment of understanding.

Different heavy metals present in other ways. A friend's wife had really high levels of mercury,,,, she went through absolute hell until they figured it out and managed to get her levels down.

 

[IanH]

5? Really? They must have lowered the standard, it used to be 30 before anyone raised an eyebrow. Mine was a 1 two years ago. I melt scrap a few times a year, cast hundreds of pounds of bullets, handle solder and do soldering fairly regularly, and of course shooting, including those unmentionables that blow primer dust right up your nose if you're a lefty.

Here's the deal:

• I use a wet tumbler to clean brass and never am exposed to vibratory tumbler dust.
• I never shoot indoors.
• I don't put my lead-oxide coated hands (from handling projectiles, scrap, or ingots) into or near any of my body holes or anything like a door knob, drink cup, etc. without washing with a scrub brush and normal soap and cool water first. You cannot absorb solid lead compounds through your skin even with hot water, I just prefer cool water.
• I have a fume hood that I use for casting indoors and police the area well, the duct inside of the hood tests a raging hot positive for lead oxide dust with wipes but not from FUMES (a myth at normal casting temperatures) but from dust carried up there with smoke from fluxing the lead furnace.
• I don't inhale right after breaking a shot from an AR-15 or any other semi-auto in which I shoot cast bullets.
• I don't rub patches between my fingers (that have been digging for lead balls in the bag) before sticking them in my mouth to wet.
• I use a lead-aware website to scrutinize dishes and cookware before purchasing. Certain ceramic glazes, especially from China, are a major source of lead poisoning.
• I drink rainwater and there is no lead in any of my plumbing.

Lead oxide is what gets us, not ingestion of elemental lead. It's the trace oxide dust that transfers to our mouths or is inhaled in various ways (especially inhalation) regularly in tiny amounts that add up and will poison you.

 

[SOLANCO]

Eventually, something is going to kill you.

 

[IanH]

Eventually, something is going to kill you.

 

[cjsoccer3]

How old is your home? Any lead piping in the water supply? Don't recall the specifics, but in certain circumstances water will pick up lead.

Never lived in a home made before 1989. No lead paint, lead in/around pipes, etc.

I am self-taught at shooting though as my parents wanted nothing to do with it. For the first 7 years shot indoors exclusively twice a month or so and went off the deep end getting the cheapest (and when they were cheaper) full auto transferable in my early 20s. Idk, maybe 1000 rounds indoors in a day could add up. As I naive 20 some odd year old, maybe then I cranked up lead levels with shotty post range hand washing?

In my memory, really nothing sticks out though. I’ve smelted since COVID given that’s when the ammo shortages began. Maybe smelted 3 or 4 times on my own? Absolutely washed my hands there using KN95 masks each time and showering with delead soaps. Other times were with people with 30 years of experience next to me.

All in all I’m honestly just confused as I truly think I’m more careful than the average person at the gun club. And my background (half privileged as a kid, honestly) has no associations with lead. Most folks don’t delead and plenty smoke / eat on the range, so just super weird.

 

[TDM]

Eventually, something is going to kill you.

Agree.

 

[necchi]

OMG, those kinds of toxin levels aren't from shooting.
Have your water tested