Blood Lead Levels

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Interesting information that I think should be shared with everyone here. Some of you may know this already so this is for those who don't...

I was just at the Dr this week and as an aside I asked her to test my blood lead. I do not reload but I am involved with a basic firearms safety class and shoot regularly.
My level came back as 14. Which isn't a level that requires treatment but is markedly elevated.
What shocked me most was the response to my question, "how long does lead stay in my system?"
The answer is- FOREVER.
What lead does is it travels in your bloodstream and then over time absorbs into your bones. If you live to be elderly the lead will eventually begin to leach out of your bones and back into your bloodstream.
The solution is to up your calcium intake. Apparently lead will bind with calcium and cause it to absorb into your bones faster. It is not toxic to your bones.
I thought this was moderately disturbing news and thought that I should share it with everyone here who is also at risk for high levels of lead exposure.
So the moral is- take your vitamins and chase it with a Tums.
If you have insurance it also wouldn't hurt to find out your own blood lead level.
 
I would think that it would be something that you would also look out for if you live in an older house that may have lead paint.

I know that they test the kiddies a few times when they are babies...

But I never thought about it being an adult.
 
C-pher, most of us stop chewing the window sills by the time we reach 30 or 40! [roll]

It's a good idea to be tested.

This is one of the reasons why I dislike shooting indoors any more, except at Braintree R&P. The new clubhouse range has a Negative Pressure HEPA filtration system which sucks all the lead and powder up and filters it out. AFAIK, there are no other clubs with a system like that in MA! According to Ron Glidden, he's only seen this at S&W Academy. I also believe that AFS has a similar system, but I'm not 100% positive.

Oh, it's also a tremendous help to shoot jacketed/plated bullets and not exposed lead!
 
If you're living in a house with lead paint the contamination can come just from the dust created by opening and closing windows and doors.(especially windows with many layers of paint) It is a very small amount but it can build up over time. The biggest problem in an older home is when any renovation takes place and proper steps aren't taken to capture the contaminated material.

The acute poisoning will come from actually ingesting paint chips, but a chronic problem can develope from long term low level exposure.

CD
 
When we totally renovated our home (and built an addition) in 2000-2001, one of the side benefits that wasn't lost on me was that we rid ourselves of any lead paint liability at the same time.

We totally replaced all windows/doors (and frames of same), all the siding and trim . . . so that any potential sources of contamination are now gone! The house is 51 years old, so everything needed to be replaced anyway but now there is no question that there is no lead anywhere.
 
You can also get lead from your the pipes in your home -- the lead can leach out of the solder.

I get my lead level tested each time I get a check up. It isn't covered by my insurance, but the test only costs $15.
 
We live in a 200+ year old house. So there is no doubt there is lead paint, not to mention I don't know how many layers of paint,since Glenn's grandmother used to do every year what they called freshning. Basically repainting the inside. At this point to try and get rid of it is a task that will take us quite a while. We've been dealing with the wall paper and horsehair plaster walls.
Also for those taking calcium you need it with vitamin D in order to be absorbed into your bones. Tums won't do it. I have to take alot of calcium since I had parathyroid surgery.
 
M1911 said:
You can also get lead from your the pipes in your home -- the lead can leach out of the solder.

I get my lead level tested each time I get a check up. It isn't covered by my insurance, but the test only costs $15.

$15 is a deal. I had no idea how much it would cost since I have insurance now- but having had other bloodwork without insurance in the past I can only remember the sticker shock... [roll]

And MrsWW thanks for filling in the info. I should have been more specific about which vitamin you should chase with a Tums [wink]
 
Ask your doc to check to make sure they are using the correct glassware. Different vials are prepped differently (differnt cleaning chemicals) -- they use color-coded caps. They have to use the correct vial for the lead, or the lab will send it back.

Been there, done that, got stuck in the arm again after the lab sent it back and the doc told me to come back in...
 
Yea, I'm with Mrs WW here. Our house is from the 1890's...so we were worried about lead paint as well. But the first kid showed low levels.

I do know that our landlord won't let anyone with kids move into the house next door because she's worried about the lead in the house.

And I would be more worried about me and my reloading as I only reload lead.

And Mrs. WW, the only thing I hate about slat board with the horse hair is that you really can't hang any big pictures up on the walls because it just can't handle the weight.
 
I recently received a letter from my town, watertown, that old towns such as this use old lead pipes to deliver water to people's homes. They stressed the importance of flushing the water system in your house every morning by letting the water run for a few minutes. I have since added a PUR water filter to the kitchen faucet, a Brita filter in the fridge and a water filter from home depot in the shower. This of course imposes on me one of my most hated things in life, low water pressure, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

It's scary how bad lead is for you, even when it's not moving at 850 ft/sec (SW1911)
 
LenS said:
C-pher, most of us stop chewing the window sills by the time we reach 30 or 40! [roll]

It's a good idea to be tested.

This is one of the reasons why I dislike shooting indoors any more, except at Braintree R&P. The new clubhouse range has a Negative Pressure HEPA filtration system which sucks all the lead and powder up and filters it out. AFAIK, there are no other clubs with a system like that in MA! According to Ron Glidden, he's only seen this at S&W Academy. I also believe that AFS has a similar system, but I'm not 100% positive.

Oh, it's also a tremendous help to shoot jacketed/plated bullets and not exposed lead!


AFS has the same thing, you can see the smoke get sucked downrange.
 
C-pher said:
I do know that our landlord won't let anyone with kids move into the house next door because she's worried about the lead in the house.

I wonder of the possible liability from a suit over lead ingestion by a kid would be (1) as likely or (2) as costly as a discrimination charge by MCAD for violation of MGL Chapter 111, Section 199A.

Ken
 
C-pher said:
And Mrs. WW, the only thing I hate about slat board with the horse hair is that you really can't hang any big pictures up on the walls because it just can't handle the weight.


Find the vertical studs that the lath is nailed to. You can hang a moose head on one of them. :)
 
Ive replaced a couple of hundred residential water services, and youd be suprised how many have lead components. even if you see galvinized or in rare cases, copper coming into the house, alot of the long sweeps (90)are made of a 3-4 foot long lead gooseneck.
 
I can't for the life of me believe that windows opening and closing would cause lead poisoning.

I just yanked 3 windows out to replace, and am sure there was a lot of paint flying. Though I was careful to vac up the chips and loose dust, I wasn't about to close up the whole house to do it.

I DO, however, let the water run for a couple seconds in the morning to get the old stale water out of the lines in case there is dissolved solder lead in there as that is an easy one to do.

I for one remember when lead paint was around, and you didn't see houses peeling, chipping, fading, blistering like they do now. Maybe the vinyl siding industry is in on it somehow. And what is it with the power washing of vinyl siding anyhow? I thought the point was to be maintenance free. Give me wood any day over vinyl.
 
They need to make Parkerized siding!

Or maybe Satin Stainless Steel! 8)

Arrr

-Weer'd Beard

PS: when picking out my wedding ring I almost got a band with a brushed finish because it looked like my 1911....I went with the regular plane-jane ring.
 
FunYun said:
LenS said:
C-pher, most of us stop chewing the window sills by the time we reach 30 or 40! [roll]

It's a good idea to be tested.

This is one of the reasons why I dislike shooting indoors any more, except at Braintree R&P. The new clubhouse range has a Negative Pressure HEPA filtration system which sucks all the lead and powder up and filters it out. AFAIK, there are no other clubs with a system like that in MA! According to Ron Glidden, he's only seen this at S&W Academy. I also believe that AFS has a similar system, but I'm not 100% positive.

Oh, it's also a tremendous help to shoot jacketed/plated bullets and not exposed lead!


AFS has the same thing, you can see the smoke get sucked downrange.
Hanson Rod and Gun club is the same way.
 
Coyote33 said:
I can't for the life of me believe that windows opening and closing would cause lead poisoning.

I'm not talking about acute poisoning there. I was just giving an example to show lead from paint can be introduced to your system without eating the paint chips. It has to be a worst case scenario for the paint dust that's created to be ingested or inhaled. Old home, lot's of paint layers, crappy condition of the windows and poor cleaning habits.

I've worked in environmental labs for just over 20 years, 15 of those years testing heavy metals. You'd be surprised at the lead levels that can show up in accumulated dust.

The most common routes I've seen are still ingestion of the paint, lead plumbing and contaminated toys.(old with lead paint or newer untested products)

CD
 
OK I have new info seeing as I saw an Occupational Therapist regarding the lead issue.

This is more for the women, or your spouses/girlfriends of child bearing age. The Dr. agreed that stepping up on Calcium is not a bad idea. However, when discussing my lead levels and what effect it would have on any future children I wanted to bear he told me that the real concern is that when babies are forming in utero their bones develop from the calcium stores in the mom's body.
Mom's body can't differentiate lead from calcium (that's why it gets stored in bones).

So with an elevated lead level in mom the forming baby will also have lead in its bones when born. But to put my mind at ease for the future the Dr pointed out that my lead level is only 14. That's high for today's standards but a generation ago most women had levels of 18-25 as the norm. And managed to have healthy babies.

I thought this was all interesting. However his suggestion to get my lead level down is to "stop going to 'that place'" (meaning the range)at which I laughed and said "no chance. Not until I'm trying to have kids." [lol]

Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm being sent for a cool X-ray type procedure that shows exactly how much lead I have stored up in my bones. If I wasn't planning on having kids in the next few years I wouldn't bother, but I want to be as prepared as I can.
 
A couple suggestions to lower your lead exposure. First, much airborne lead is caused by vaporization of the base of the bullet. So avoid bullets that have exposed lead bases. Note that FMJ bullets have exposed lead bases. Look for TMJ instead (Winclean is one, I believe), or JHP if you can afford them.

Second, wear disposable rubber gloves when cleaning your guns.

Third, carefully wash your face and hands after shooting.
 
KMaurer said:
C-pher said:
I do know that our landlord won't let anyone with kids move into the house next door because she's worried about the lead in the house.

I wonder of the possible liability from a suit over lead ingestion by a kid would be (1) as likely or (2) as costly as a discrimination charge by MCAD for violation of MGL Chapter 111, Section 199A.

Ken


I think that it's more like prefer not to have them. We live in a house and we have kids. But our house isn't really painted. More natural wood trim and the like.
 
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