Thread: Lead warnings
View Single Post
Old January 24, 2012, 04:25 AM   #11
warbirdlover
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 13, 2009
Location: central Wisconsin
Posts: 2,324
Quote:
I too have been casting indoors since '72. The first 15 years in a drafty basement, no ventilation

Since then, I've been it the same spare bedroom as the rest of my loading gear. Again, no ventilation. The last 3 years, I've been getting tested for my lead levels, the HIGHEST was 7.0. That with shooting at an indoor range in wintertime.

A lot of hype from the govmint is just junk science. Studies that come to a forgone conclusion by cherry picking studies that agree with your agenda, and ignoring studies that say the opposite. Same goes with the so-called toxicity of lead.

Lead is NOT absorbed through your skin. It must be ingested.
Lead does not fume below 1200 degrees. So the smoke you see from fluxing is just that, SMOKE not lead fumes.
Fired primers are much more of a problem, the lead styphonate is easily absorbed when the dust from fired primers is inhaled.

I'm sure the surfaces of my loading/casting room are contaminated with lead. If I had any young kids around or a pregnant female, I'd be real worried. I live alone, no one to rag on me, tell me what to do. I just wash my hands real good when I leave that room. Works for me.

All the knowledge I've been able to accumulate says there's no real danger from home casting lead bullets. It's common knowledge that lead does not throw vapors under 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. Does it have vapors once molten? Yes, but they stay tightly confined to the surface of the lead. You would have to work at it to get them airborne, something to suck them off very near the surface of the lead. That means deliberately using a hose or straw to inhale the vapors.

Our casting pots seldom go above 900 deg. Normal casting is seldom above 750 deg. Lead boils at 3180 deg. THEN fumes vigorously. If added to molten steel, it would certainly be throwing fumes, which is why foundries and steel mill workers are poisoned.

Lead oxide is much more dangerous than metallic lead. Smelters are dealing with Galena ore which has lead oxide in it. So smelter workers are in danger of getting poisoned.
If you want to take a chance, go ahead. I was only letting you know what I know as a retired metallurgist for a transmission company.
warbirdlover is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02653 seconds with 8 queries