[Unclenick]

The last post points up one of the symptoms, which is loss of rational thought; on the part of the poisoner, that is, who probably had high lead levels, too.

The metal is not all that poisonous. People have lived with lead bullet fragements in their bodies for decades. You need adequate acidity to put the lead in a soluble form. Eating the oxide (as in lead-based paint) will do it as stomach acid breaks it down into a soluble form.

Kids are a lot more susceptable than adults. The acceptable levels were lowered a number of years back, but mostly because of the effects on neural development in kids. I've seen it debated whether even the old limit of 50 will noticably affect most adults? I had a level of 11 about 25 years back, despite indoor shooting where there was no propber ventillation by current standards and doing bullet casting (though I had a vent for the casting). Washing hands adequately using a nail brush to get oxides out from under fingernails before eating seems to be a key.

You can sweat lead out gradually with a sauna. That's what the treatment for mercury poisoning always was before chelation therapy. It may still be for milder cases, which I would put yours in, as you are adult. Besides, it's an excuse to relax in the steam room.