LEAD Action News Volume
14 Number 1, October 2013, ISSN 1324-6011
Incorporating Lead Aware Times ( ISSN 1440-4966) and Lead Advisory Service
News (ISSN 1440-0561)
The Journal of The LEAD (Lead Education and Abatement Design) Group Inc.
Editor-in-Chief: Elizabeth O’Brien,
Editorial Team: Hitesh Lohani, Anne Roberts and
David Ratcliffe
Info Pack -
Lead-safety for shooters and workers at shooting ranges
This Info Pack (collection of
articles which form a great reference list for a fact sheet) has resulted
from a request for a fact sheet for shooters and their doctors from a NSW
public health officer and is presented in the hope that a Public Health
Officer will write an appropriate fact sheet and web-publish it for the
benefit of everyone shooting in NSW (and beyond) and everyone managing the
lead poisoning cases which result.
"INDOOR
FIRING RANGES INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE TECHNICAL GUIDE: Technical Manual NEHC
(US Navy Environmental Health Center) TM6290.99-10 Rev.1 (May 2002)"
FROM [This guide has some good ideas eg recommends painting of porous floors
in the range for ease of cleaning, but does not sufficiently emphasize the
importance of biological monitoring (blood lead testing for lead exposure,
urine lead testing for lead styphnate exposure), but wrongly states that
lead does not penetrate the skin.]
When I did a Google search for a
fact sheet on the topic, the result was: No results found for "fact
sheet for shooters" "lead exposure". However, some of the
first 10 results are relevant or partly relevant:
Aug 27, 2013 - Further
information on how to prevent lead exposure from damaged or...Lead dust and
your health - Information for gun shooters - Fact sheet.
Prevention of Exposure to Lead at Work in Indonesia
www.lead.org.au/fs/fst61.html
Mar 25, 2013 - FACTSHEET.
Prevention of Exposure to Lead at Work in Indonesia. Which occupations have
more risk of high lead exposure? Shooters and ...
May 7, 2013 - A
Manageable Hazard - Aiming for Lower Lead Exposure: Shooting and Exposure to
Lead. ...Library-Fact Sheets · Home Page
Fact
sheet: Recommendations for operators - Auckland Regional ...
www.arphs.govt.nz/.../Health%20advice%20and%20recommendations-O...
Minimising
Lead Exposure in Shooting Club Ranges. Public Health....Fact sheets from
MidCentral District Health Board in regards to “lead hazards and indoor.
Exposure
to Lead in Indoor Shooting Ranges Lead is a well ...
www.portal.state.pa.us/.../website_exposure_to_lead_in_indoor_shooting...
Therefore,
managing and controlling lead exposure in this setting....Fact Sheet: Indoor
Firing Ranges, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National.
I note that two of the above web
search results are fact sheets for shooters, but both focus on lead-safety
only at indoor firing ranges (and omit to say that lead poisoning prevention
is also important for shooters anywhere):
PDF
Version - Environmental Health Perspectives ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/121/6/ehp.1306945.pdf
by DC Bellinger - Related
articles ammunition
poses risks of elevated lead exposure to gun users (National. Research
Council 2012). When lead-containing bullets are used to shoot wildlife, they
can ...
NRA
Pulled Its Science-Denying Website That Claimed Lead ...
mediamatters.org/research/2013/08/08/nra-pulled-its...that.../195299
Aug 8, 2013 - b)
The discharge of lead-based ammunition is known to pose risks of elevated
lead exposure to gun users (NRC, 2012). c) Lead-based bullets ...
Of those top ten Google search
results (immediately above), the closest things to a factsheet for lead
poisoned shooters / staff at shooting ranges, and their doctors, are:
2. the article at http://www.corneredcat.com/article/firearms-safety/aiming-for-lower-lead-exposure/
which I referenced in my first Info Pack on this topic, and which begins by
recommending blood lead testing, and usefully states:
“...the range can institute
several controls to lower the amount of lead dust in these facilities.
The choice of ammunition is one such
control. Non-jacketed ammunition produces the most lead dust and fumes,
fully jacketed ammunition less and lead-free ammunition, obviously, the
least. Shotgun shells produce more airborne lead dust than any handgun
round. Currently, many ammunition manufacturers make available lead-free
ammunition that does away with lead compounds in both the primer and the
bullet. From a personal standpoint using lead-free primer ammunition with
fully jacketed bullets or lead-free bullets will have the greatest benefit
for individual shooters.”
3. by comparison, the article at http://www.examiner.com/article/tips-to-reduce-lead-exposure-from-shooting
starts by recommending shooting outdoors (over shooting indoors), and ends
by only recommending non-lead ammunition and blood lead testing for shooters
or workers at indoor ranges who think they have a high lead exposure risk.
My question is: how would they know they might be lead poisoned, without
getting a blood lead test first, before they begin shooting or working near
shooters? Why not just recommend non-lead ammo for every shooter? The most
useful thing on that webpage is a graphic showing the brand name of a
lead-free bullet, with the caption: This Federal American Eagle Total Metal
Jacket ammo uses a lead free primer and total metal jacket.
According to Australian researchers
Gulson et al (2002) [“Changes in blood lead of a recreational shooter” -
full article available for purchase for US$41.95 at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969702000037
; abstract at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12109468:
“Although more expensive, the use
of Cu-jacketed bullets, non-lead primers and well-ventilated indoor firing
ranges would lessen the health impacts of recreational shooting.”
I searched for “lead free” on
the Queensland Gun Exchange website and got quite a few results - http://www.qldgunexchange.com/QGEWeb/product_search.seam?cid=430729
– although my searches for copper-jacket, Cu-jacket and non-lead primer
were fruitless, so I hope you will phone them on 0733930933 and let me know
what they supply that is recommended for reducing lead exposure of the
shooter.
I couldn’t find lead-free,
non-lead primer or copper on Cleaver Firearms site although the photos of
some ammunition look like they might be copper-jacketed, so you would have
to phone them too, on 0738831733, and please let me know what they say.
Similarly, please contact the
following NSW ammunition suppliers from my White Pages search results, (or
search their websites) and let me know whether any of them supply lead-free
ammo or fully jacketed bullets:
The dust on the floor and horizontal
hard surfaces, like window sills, at a firing range can be tested for lead
at a lab (whereas the Lead Check kits by 3M available at good hardware
stores are only sensitive enough to test for lead in paint - and they're
only colour-change kits, so you end up not knowing HOW MUCH lead is in the
paint, just a general idea of whether there's SOME lead in the paint).
The LEAD Group charity has set up a
DIY-Sampling kit where you collect the samples and post them to a lab for
lead analysis - which gives you the exact amount of lead in dust wipes
and/or paint and/or soil (or water or bullets etc) PLUS an interpretation
report to tell you what the results mean in terms of lead-safety for
shooters and staff, as well as recommendations on what to do about the
results (to reduce blood lead levels), tailored to your situation.