5 ms·

Solid lead is not really a problem if you wash your hands before eating after handling it because it doesn't absorb through the skin. Whether or not these peopl

by opencl 9y ago

Solid lead is not really a problem if you wash your hands before eating after handling it because it doesn't absorb through the skin. Whether or not these people actually did that, I have no idea. But to this day there's still plenty of solid lead stuff that hasn't been banned: fishing weights, bullets, etc. The main causes of lead poisoning back in the day were all from inhalation: soldering results in inhaling lead fumes, machining/sanding lead resulted in inhaling lead dust, exhaust from cars using leaded gas (this was the big one that affected basically everyone), etc.

smacktoward 9y ago
Lead bullets are actually slowly starting to get banned. California is phasing in a ban on their use in hunting, for instance (see https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Nonlead-Ammunition https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Nonlead-Ammunition), and the Obama Administration's Interior Department issued a ban on their use in federal wildlife refuges. That latter one was later repealed by the Trump Administration (see http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/322058-interior-secretary-repeals-ban-on-lead-ammunition http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/322058-interior...), but given the hazards lead poses to the environment that's unlikely to be the last word we ever hear on the subject. Beyond hunting, the military is moving in the same direction; the Army has switched to using lead-free bullets as its standard rifle ammunition (https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/5/21/testing-the-army-s-m855a1-standard-ball-cartridge/ https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/5/21/testing-...), for example.
- mseebach 9y ago
  But surely that's due to environmental pollution, not any (human) health concerns?
  - jcranmer 9y ago
    Yes, environmental, not human, concerns are the primary reason for banning lead bullets.
biggieshellz 9y ago
The amount of lead fumes you'll inhale from soldering is minimal -- the temperature at which the work is done is almost always below the temperature at which the lead will vaporize. See https://diamondenv.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/lead-exposure-during-soldering/ https://diamondenv.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/lead-exposure-du... -- low-temperature melting of lead (below 500 degrees Celsius) "is not liable to result in significant exposure to lead".
- jjt-yn_t 9y ago
  We had one linotype man in the shop. Several times yearly I'd be tasked on the back open air dock to melt down the lead type in a cauldron of sorts as his assistant. No ones job in that shop was without low pay occupational hazards... save, by necessity probably, the owners...
- azinman2 9y ago
  There is no safe amount of lead.
wyldfire 9y ago
> The main causes of lead poisoning back in the day were all from inhalation In addition to those mechanisms, I think another popular one is cigarette smoking. If you were handling lead, it could get absorbed into the cigarette and inhaled that way.

by opencl 9y ago

smacktoward 9y ago

Lead bullets are actually slowly starting to get banned. California is phasing in a ban on their use in hunting, for instance (see https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Nonlead-Ammunition https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Nonlead-Ammunition), and the Obama Administration's Interior Department issued a ban on their use in federal wildlife refuges. That latter one was later repealed by the Trump Administration (see http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/322058-interior-secretary-repeals-ban-on-lead-ammunition http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/322058-interior...), but given the hazards lead poses to the environment that's unlikely to be the last word we ever hear on the subject. Beyond hunting, the military is moving in the same direction; the Army has switched to using lead-free bullets as its standard rifle ammunition (https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/5/21/testing-the-army-s-m855a1-standard-ball-cartridge/ https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/5/21/testing-...), for example.

mseebach 9y ago
But surely that's due to environmental pollution, not any (human) health concerns?
- jcranmer 9y ago
  Yes, environmental, not human, concerns are the primary reason for banning lead bullets.

biggieshellz 9y ago

The amount of lead fumes you'll inhale from soldering is minimal -- the temperature at which the work is done is almost always below the temperature at which the lead will vaporize. See https://diamondenv.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/lead-exposure-during-soldering/ https://diamondenv.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/lead-exposure-du... -- low-temperature melting of lead (below 500 degrees Celsius) "is not liable to result in significant exposure to lead".

jjt-yn_t 9y ago
We had one linotype man in the shop. Several times yearly I'd be tasked on the back open air dock to melt down the lead type in a cauldron of sorts as his assistant. No ones job in that shop was without low pay occupational hazards... save, by necessity probably, the owners...
azinman2 9y ago
There is no safe amount of lead.

wyldfire 9y ago

> The main causes of lead poisoning back in the day were all from inhalation In addition to those mechanisms, I think another popular one is cigarette smoking. If you were handling lead, it could get absorbed into the cigarette and inhaled that way.