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.”
maybe the gunpowder coated your nose before the lead settled.
You’re forgetting it’s not the facts that count, it’s the seriousness of the charge.
When I see these “studies” I recall what my GP told me years ago .... “Until the studies are replicated and provide consistent ‘significant’ results, you can pretty much ignore them as they are seldom accurate.”
I have ten acres out from town that makes a nice practice range. I avoid indoor ranges primarily because I am cheap and they cost.
When I was a child it was fun to get the mercury out of those oral thermometers and coat pennies with them. It made them look wetly silver until they turned green. Most kids I knew did that more than once and at least some of us survived, I think. The son of a friend was playing with mercury in the eighties and managed to grow up. It probably prevented a super-Einstein because he only grew up to be recruited by NASA when he was a senior in High School. He had some significant input into the software on a Mars Rover project.
My understanding is that the amounts that can cause problems are very small when it involves unborn or young children; I think there’s some evidence that even those small amounts *can* be harmful to a developing brain. I have seen little or no evidence of lead exposure effecting adults.
I don’t know what the exposure values were in the late 70s. Re Umgud’s comment. While in grad school, I spent summer weekends as range safety officer for IHMSA matches, and the Minnesota state championships. All well and good. Winters, at an indoor range in a northern Minneapolis suburb, I ran two different combat pistol leagues, probably spending 8-10/hr per week at or behind the firing line. Because of the cost of heating the exchange air, the range cut the ventilation volume in half.
I was eventually symptomatic, underwent chelation at UofMN health services. It was the lead styphnate. Black mucus when blowing my nose should have been a clue.
True. Lead levels in the body of 115 grains can be fatal.
Mark
Dang! I find the residue of primer and smokeless powder quite acrid-- how thick was the air with this stuff for you to get sick with it?
I was thinking of the fact that everyone used to be exposed to lead from leaded gasoline, so it's hard for me to imagine (short of eating it) how much exposure you needed to get symptomatic: if that was at half-ventilation, I suspect even the original ventilation was inadequate.
If it was in the 70's, it might also have been due to over-sealing the building to reduce energy costs, which happened quite a lot, also causing levels of formaldehyde and CO to build to dangerous levels on occasion.
The wet shirt is caused by the paint chip diet I ate when I was young. Plus I routinely ingested no. 6 pellets from the pheasants and bunnies I harvested as a lad.
I always wondered why my feet felt heavy when I left the range.
All this time I thought it was because it was nap time.
“One of my paternal grandmother’s babies (who would have been my uncle) died from eating food that was cooked in a copper kettle.”
Somehow changing the bullet substance of a weapon designed to kill or poison, with something designed to kill or poison, and calling it an improvement, doesn’t seem real bright.
rwood
If I remember what I read a couple of days ago almost all studies cannot be replicated and are scientifically and statistically worthless.
I have ranted about just this thing to my poor wife for many years. She is kind enough to not smack me for complaining about these worthless studies. She just tells me I am a broken record.
I stand to be corrected, but I’m not buying it.
Wear masks if you are concerned.
The anti-gun people are really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
Especially if one is on the opposite end of the trigger pull
LOL! Best post ever! :)
Isn’t always the “serious of the charge” ? LOL!
L
Wow! Amazing.
So much fear-mongering.
If you are still in touch with this person, I hope you will tell him thanks for his dedication.
I hear from his folks now and then. We don’t talk much anymore because Dad morphed from a Biology lab assistant at UF to full professor and his once sensible economic and social views morphed right along with his career.Austen Eliazar is the son and you can probably find him on line. He is not with NASA any more because he found out he can make loads more money in Silicon Valley and was frustrated at NASA because NASA was spinning its wheels and had no apparent further aim and now he is making even more in the Health field as a research co-ordinator, whatever that is.
Yes its just causing an epidemic of deaths. LOL!
Lead poisoning is always more of am issue at the business end of the gun. ;) As it should be.
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