i am probably older than you...
there is a difference between nominal contact and repeated high level of exposure...
hell, i have made sinkers out of lead....
i do not have elevated levels of lead in my body...
failure to take proper safeguards for your employees is criminal, and these guys put cash in their pockets at the expense of their employees very right to live..
they belong in prison, or they should be forced to perform the work the way they had their employees perform the work for a period of 5 years...
take away from them what they took away from those that worked for them...
(Most Freepers seem to be Seasoned Citizenz....)
I don't eat the paint chips, but do vacuum them up during Spring Cleaning occasionally.
None of the fam has had any high Pb levels.
A little ventilation helps a lot. I've also done some plumbing with liquid lead for joint sealing without picking up a significant load.
More specifics would help in analysis.
How do you know the lead in the employees came from the plant. Did they test other people living in the same area?
The story doesn't indicate what processes that are used to de-prime and clean used cartridges would result in such lead exposure.
The story does say An OSHA inspection in March actually found that the company complied with federal requirements for several months, apparently learning from its mistake last year. It sounds more like the company was not doing things the OSHA way, but now are.
Brass is an alloy of copper(mostly) and zinc. No lead in it. Primers have lead, and the fired primers could be the source of the lead, but most of the lead from the primer goes out the end of the cartridge case, right behing the bullet, when the cartridge is fired.