From: ems@michael.apple.com (E. Michael Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Spent brass lead hazard... test kit found lead
Date: 9 Oct 92 17:20:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: michael.1992Oct9.021732.16244
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <3815@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> nick@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Nick Leiterman) writes:
#
#How much lead does it take to be a hazard.
#I think the hazard of lead paint was from children
#eating the paint chips not handling them.

I'll find out soon.  I've got an appointment to get MY lead level
checked by the family Dr. ...  If I'd been using a particularly 
carefull technique in reloading, I wouldn't worry.  BUT, my 'bright idea'
had been that there was no need to clean brass, since it would just
get dirty again ... So I've regularly reloaded dirty, sooty, brass.

Often at the most available work table, the kitchen table ...

Often with a sandwich and drink at the 1/2 way point in the batch...

So while someone with a decent work bench with good ventilation 
who works mostly with clean brass may have no issue; someone who
was cutting corners and doing a dirty job of it (like I was) may
have more cause to worry.

#why dont you run your hands through the brass
#and then test your hand for lead.

Well, I've handled enough brass to tell you that your hand will
eventually get a dark coloration on it from metal rubbed onto
the skin.  That is more metal than got rubbed onto the test 
strips directly, so it should contain more lead than the test
strips did when they gave a positive reaction...

I suppose I could do the test, but it would require buying ANOTHER
kit of 8 test strips for ANOTHER $9.99 (so maybe someone else can
pick up the test series from here?  I'd rather by $10 of 9mm ...)

#I think the acceptable concentration of lead 
#is much lower for handling it than for eating it.
         ^^^^^
	 I think you meant 'higher'?  More is ok for handling, less
	 for eating ...

Unfortunately, it is a short trip from the hand to the mouth...

I've had 40+ lbs of lead in my home for most of my life.  SCUBA diver
weight belt, fishing weights, rolls of solder.  I'm not particularly
paranoid about handling the stuff in solid form.  It's the dust/soot
that is easily airborn that I'm wondering most about, and my cavalier
attitude toward it in the past ...

#Anyway a good handwash is probably not a bad idea.

Thank you for echoing the sentiment.

I find it a sad thing that the one comment about "brass registering
positive so maybe washing ones hands is a good idea" has generated
more traffic than all the other much more imporant material.

Why so many folks feel compelled to argue that there is no reason
to wash your hands so you might as well leave them dirty is beyond me.
What's the harm in suggesting that if your hands are smudged from
handling brass, washing them is likely to be a good thing?  Sheesh.

I would regularly handle a bunch of brass and get my hands smudged up
and go right ahead and eat a sandwich.  (Thinking 'there ought not to
be much risk, so why not').  Finding a positive lead test implies to
me that I ought to wash-up before the sandwich and coffee.  It doesn't
seem like such an unreasonable leap... especially to my wife ;-)

IF I get real ambitious I'll get another $10 kit and test several 
pure metal samples (I still have some Zn from the chemical supply
house that was used in a proof that methanol didn't turn light 
metals to dust nearly as fast as John De Armond had asserted in 
a sci.energy exchange some years ago.  It should be chemically pure 
enough to not have random lead contaminents.)  But don't count on 
it being any time soon.  I'm willing to accept that the kit is a
'class act' and not prone to such obvious false positives.

I get my lead blood test results back in a week or two.  If they are
in the 'not to worry' range, then I'll gladly test the test more...

If they show that I've picked up more lead than I'd thought, I'm
willing to accept that the kit has shown me from where:  Most strong
reading was the soot on the cases from the primers.  VERY WEAK was
the brass itself.  Ergo, it's the primers that are the source of 
the lead and it's dirty technique that is the problem...

-- 

E. Michael Smith  ems@apple.COM

'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has
 genius, power and magic in it.'  -  Goethe

I am not responsible nor is anyone else.  Everything is disclaimed.