Reloading safety- Exposure

[ArchAngelCD]

From what I'm told (I'm no doctor) your biggest chance of lead contamination comes from investing it or breathing very fine lead dust.

Do not eat or smoke while reloading because the lead on your hands can be taken into the body like that. Do not put your hands near your mouth, nose or eyes when reloading. Do not shoot indoors without very good commercial ventilation. If you do those simple things you should be safe, or so I'm told. If you are worried consult your doctor and get a blood test. Like said many times above, stop over thinking this.

Enjoy loading, casting and shooting and be safe...

 

[chamokaneman]

I always wash my hands after I do any kind of reload work, even if it's just taking a break for a minute.

I had been thinking about doing my de-priming in the garage until I got my Lee APP. I like the primer and all debris being neatly deposited into the little jar. No more sweeping or vacuuming up the dust on the bench.

I have started doing all my dry tumbling in the garage and I do the media separating inside a tote (the tumbler, media, sieve, and brass, not me). I do this part with a respirator on and any errant media/ dust ends up mostly back in the tumbler or in a garbage can.

Casting gets done outside or in the garage with a box fan blowing on the workbench. The clothes I'm wearing for ingot making especially go straight to the laundry room.

None of these things are hard or complicated nor do they need to be. I was a safety manager for a number of years and the only couple times I ever had employees pop positive for heavy metals the root cause was bad hygiene, i.e. wearing blast booth coveralls to the break room, etc.

Simple things are usually the most effective.

 

[jmorris]

Anyone ever wonder if their reloading hobby exposes them to harmful substances?…

Any insight appreciated.
Any illnesses reported from exposures to handloading or factory workers loading ammunition?

I have been shooting since I was old enough to hold pellets for my air rifle in my mouth, for faster reloads. Started reloading when I was 13, mostly cast lead. Numerous blood tests over the years and never tested high until I had been competing at weekly indoor matches.

I quit shooting indoors except for a hand full of sanctioned matches but kept shooting at least 2 outdoor matches a week, reloading, picking up range brass/bullets, tumbling (dry and wet), smelting lead, casting bullets, etc and my lead levels went back down, took a long time but they did and all I quit doing was shooting in a poorly ventilated range.

That said, I never felt ill, just got caught at my yearly.

 

[Engineer1911]

Life is filled with risk, you have to decide how much you will tolerate when reloading. Your risk, your decision.

 

[Dudedog]

Numerous blood tests over the years and never tested high until I had been competing at weekly indoor matches.
I quit shooting indoors except for a hand full of sanctioned matches but kept shooting at least 2 outdoor matches a week, reloading, picking up range brass/bullets, tumbling (dry and wet), smelting lead, casting bullets, etc and my lead levels went back down, took a long time but they did and all I quit doing was shooting in a poorly ventilated range.

I traced my issue to the indoor range where I used to shoot.
Once my levels got back to normal, I resumed shooting outdoors, loading, brass processing, scrounging brass, etc, no issues, so had to be the indoor range....
Like I mentioned earlier indoor ranges can be done right but for some reason it seems like a lot of them are not.

If you shoot at an indoor range very often I would urge you to get your levels checked, the only way to know before it is to late is to check.
I felt fine but my levels where sky high. How long they could have stayed that way or increased before I had major health issues I don't know, but would have happened sooner or later if I continued the way I was going.

 

[kmw1954]

Wow, I am not going to worry about what is happening on my bench or in my home when all I need to do it look outside once. Look in the Kitchen once, look in the bathroom once and then read the reports of studies and transference. There are more chemicals and pollutants floating around in everyday air that are much more toxic than anything coming off my bench.

Like Agpilot I grew up on a farm with dairy cows, beef cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and rodents. They all defecated and urinated at will. Then fertilizers, weed killers, crop dust, barn dust, tractor exhaust. Or how about go stand on any busy large city street corner and count the number of buses that stop at nearly every corner and how much crap they puff out.

Again what is on or coming off my bench is the least of my worries. I also have heart disease and would be considered a high at risk person yet I am more in fear of dropping dead of a heart attack than catching a virus or inhaling some chemical.

 

[Rule3]

Anyone ever wonder if their reloading hobby exposes them to harmful substances?
I know enough about HazMat stuff from my profession to know that there is more to it than just the short term. I know a few exposures to any given substance are tolerable.....but how about repeated exposures over long periods of time? These are the ones that are more difficult to study, more difficult to prove and thus can't prove the existence of an exposure.

I wonder about specific substances and what hazards they could pose.

1) Lead (I limit my lots of cast lead loading to one larger batch at a time, then clean the equipment to limit lead exposure) I load plated bullets for the bulk of my semi-auto training rounds, which I load on a weekly basis. Again, this is what I do because it makes me more comfortable.

2) Powder dust- I notice this makes it way around after loading a few hundred rounds, light dust or static cling attaches itself to funnel, and at base of the shellplate. I clean this up periodically

3) Primer dust- Both from spent primers and new primers- I wipe out primer flip tray once every month or so..primer dust slowly accumulates in here. I clean out spent primer cup on my 550B every time I load.

4) Case tumbling- I now have a friend with a wet tumbler handle this in large batches, and I also buy 9mm, 38/357 and 10mm brass from him already deprimed and cleaned in large lots which eliminates some dirty work. Having a dry tumbler adjacent to my reloading area was a fairly dirty task.

Ventilation is something that is fairly difficult to achieve in a basement. I know that it's advised to load in a "well ventilated" area. This probably means that air that is slightly moving is better than still air....I will admit I probably don't load In a "well ventilated" area...

Any insight appreciated.
Any illnesses reported from exposures to handloading or factory workers loading ammunition?

If you are that concerned over your reloading than how about actually shooting??

Do you shoot indoors or outdoors?

You have a bigger risk while shooting and all the contaminated from GSR (primers, powder) then what happens when you pick up brass? Do you sweep it up? Gads think of the exposure!. Gloves, eye protection respirator or a full Haz Mat suit!

You do not absorb lead by touching it.

On and on we go.

 

[Soonerpesek]

You do not absorb lead by touching it.

Ummmmm.......

Some studies have found lead can be absorbed through skin. 1 If you handle lead and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, you could be exposed. Lead dust can also get on your clothes and your hair. If this happens, it’s possible that you may track home some of the lead dust, which may also expose your family.

How Lead Exposures Can Happen | NIOSH | CDC

www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/exposure.html

 

[Rule3]

Ummmmm.......

Some studies have found lead can be absorbed through skin. 1 If you handle lead and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, you could be exposed. Lead dust can also get on your clothes and your hair. If this happens, it’s possible that you may track home some of the lead dust, which may also expose your family.

How Lead Exposures Can Happen | NIOSH | CDC
View attachment 1032174
www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/exposure.html

It then entered you body through your eyes, nose and mouth which are the primary entry routes of heavy metal toxins.

It do not go through your skin!

Plus the exposure was as I said , when shooting not reloading

Not like this topic has not been gone over and over again.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Anyone ever wonder if their reloading hobby exposes them to harmful substances?

Only in California......
Everything causes cancer there.

 

[Soonerpesek]

It do not go through your skin![/QUOTE

Some studies have found lead can be absorbed through skin. 1 If you handle lead and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, you could be exposed. Lead dust can also get on your clothes and your hair. If this happens, it’s possible that you may track home some of the lead dust, which may also expose your family.

How Lead Exposures Can Happen | NIOSH | CDC

www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/exposure.html

C'mon man, read what was posted..............