Posted on 05/12/2017 2:41:44 PM PDT by PROCON
Lead dust discharged from firearms at gun ranges may be posing a significant health risk, a new analysis has concluded.
The review analysis of 36 studies conducted between 1975 and 2016, published recently in the journal Environmental Health, looked at the ways gun range lead exposure affected patrons, employees and family members.
For the analysis, the authors used the search engines Google Scholar, Pubmed and Science Direct to access studies related to blood lead levels (BLL) and firearms. From that search, 36 related articles were found from 15 countries around the world. Over half the articles were from the U.S.
The authors found that nearly all BLL measurements published in the reviewed studies exceeded the current maximum safe level of 5 μg/dL set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH).
In 31 studies BLLs > 10 μg/dL were reported in some shooters, 18 studies reported BLLs > 20 μg/dL, 17 studies > 30 μg/d, and 15 studies BLLs > 40 μg/dL. The studies found the higher levels of BLLs to be connected to lead discharge from guns at shooting ranges, number of bullets fired, and caliber of weapon fired.
From those results, the authors concluded that shooting ranges are a ‘significant’ health problem, as many adverse heath outcomes have been connected to high BLLs, such as tremors, high blood pressure, heart disease, and decreased kidney function. High BLLs can also lead to complications in pregnancy and lower IQ and impaired cognitive function in children.
To decrease the health risk, the study’s authors called for better ventilation systems at shooting ranges, banning smoking and eating at shooting ranges, and developed airflow systems for outdoor ranges. They also suggest changing clothes after shooting.
To eliminate lead dust risk completely, lead-free primers and lead-free bullets would have to be used, the authors said.
The study also found that those most at risk are those who frequently shoot at ranges, such as firearms instructors, police and military personnel.
In order to reduce that risk, the Department of Defense has lowered its BLL standard to 20 μg/dL, NPR News reported. That level is three times lower than what it used to be.
DOD spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel James Brindle told NPR those changes were implemented after a National Academy of Sciences report published in 2012 also showed DOD personnel faced significant health risks due to lead exposure.
“DoD’s subject matter experts in toxicology and occupational medicine used the Committee’s report to propose the lower allowable blood lead level,” Brindle said.
The lead exposure issue remains divisive, with some gun rights advocates questioning the validity of and motivations behind such studies, including National Shooting Sports Foundation Vice President Larry Keane.
“Well, that’s their opinion,” said Keane. “We believe there are efforts by others that want to diminish people’s participation in shooting sports or exercise their Second Amendment rights. They put out or advocate positions that are unsupported by the evidence.”
One of the authors of the analysis, Gabriel Filipelli, made it clear to the Indy Star that the analysis was not meant to take a stance on gun rights.
“This is not an anti-gun paper,” Filippelli said. “It’s a pro lead-protection paper.”
The real question is...If you were a drooling imbecile.... how would you know?
Quick! Check your shirt and see if it is wet....
Does that mean we can get our hands on some depleted uranium?
That is excellent advice. For a number of years I was putting in 3 hours a week at my local indoor range (2 hour defensive pistol class plus another hour practice). My instructor told us he had tested high for lead, and he suggested we all get tested. I came in high as well, at 19 micrograms per deciliter. The instructor instituted a pretty strict hand-washing regimen - full hand soap scrub during each break and immediately after class or practice was over. We were also advised to change shirts as soon as feasible after class. It worked pretty well. The lead levels slowly dropped, without reducing the amount of range time. My level never got down to the 5 micrograms per deciliter level, but it did get down below 10.
Roy Rogers had a shooting range in what is now the Chatsworth Park South.
Became a park around 1965 and a million people have walked thru it.
None dying from lead poisoning....
Video of the park being fixed up. Many other videos on right side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPZ7n680cRM
Roy Rogers skeet shooting range.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eGWbhJNnJt0/TngcFk4gj0I/AAAAAAAABBw/KHPe3TjrWTU/s1600/skeet_shooting.jpg
They closed the park down in 2008 due to lead contamination. Promised to re-open soon but here it is 2017 and they are now going to re-open. That is gov’t for you.
There was no lead contamination. The park use to be bigger but a section was turned into a golf course then sold to have townhomes built. I bet this was to grab the remaining land but the neighbors wanted the park opened.
The politicians tried to wait them out but had to give in but not before 9 years went by and $9 million was spent!
I use to go there and climb up in the hills to hike.
Just get a flock of Condors to clean up the lead, kind of like using a herd to goats for weed control.
Easy!
Dang! Currently my grandsons and I would have about $150,000,000 to spend on cars, boats, and lots-and-lots of new long guns...
I better check for the next Harrisburg gun show schedule. Can feel an investment woody coming on...
And primers, and powder, and cases, and meltable lead alloys, and....
Women who worked electronics, soldering lead while smoking tended to get cancer later. Breathing hot lead vapors kills over time.
I actually read last week, that a huge number of health care surveys like this, are not able to be replicated.
A huge number of them. Maybe half, I think it said, maybe even higher than that. Of all these breaking news articles about one healthcare aspect, or another.
They are terrible. Healthcare surveys are the very worst, anywhere.
Yet they keep being trotted out. One after another.
Propaganda, mostly.
A homosexual penis is infinitely more dangerous than the lead at any gun range. The homosexual lifestyle is nothing but a STD amplifier.
That’s exactly what they do - “exactly how much exposure to lead is SAFE?!?!?”. #FAKESCIENCE
Exactly - so they’re saying this will result in a higher death rate among shooters, but they’re all deplorables anyway, so who cares?
Yup, and CDC studies confirm that.
Yet it's celebrated and endorsed by the same government.
WHAT YOU SAID.
The (indoor) range where I’m a member here in MA had to shut down for a year, replace the entire HVAC system, and institute a bunch of strict policies because some kids in the juvenile program tested for elevated lead levels. Our membership costs have gone through the roof, but I have to admit it’s a much better environment in which to shoot. So the issue of lead at indoor ranges can be a real one. I have no doubt lefties will try to use it to impose all sorts of ridiculous restrictions. (I think back to Clinton’s Surgeon General going on about “safer bullets.” LOL!)
As far as I know, as a combat vet, lead poisoning is the last thing thought about with enough in you to stop your heart and brain.
And I remember when there was an effort to change out lead for copper. You can reach copper toxicity just be eating food cooked off a non-treated copper pan. And the other part of these bullets are made with zinc. Zinc poisoning is just as deadly as copper. But if you can get to the ER fast enough so they flush your body in all openings fast and enough, you chances of recovery are good.
What a concept.
rwood
Abortion clinics are far more dangerous to unborn babies.
I question not only their data, their conclusions and wonder who funded the study. Were political views involved in the study and funding? Admirable timing for the LSM to jump on this right now (since the current Interior Secretary over-turned the Obama era ban on lead ammunition on federal lands in MARCH 2017). Note to the Greenies, ammunition isn’t the only common thing that has a lead component.
One of my paternal grandmother’s babies (who would have been my uncle) died from eating food that was cooked in a copper kettle.
This happened nearly 100 years ago.
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