Thread: Lead bullets and their risk to human health

Originally Posted by Oldbloke

Nonsense. You watch too much woke TV. If that was the case Lead would be banned and we wouldn't be digging it up. lead acid batteries, lead dive weights, lead fishing sinkers, none of them would exist.

Dont know about NZ, but workers/employees in AU are considered safe and healthy with low levels of lead in their blood. Regular testing is required. At a trigger point workers are removed from potential exposure for a few months until their lead blood levels return to normal Note, no medical intervention is required. The body removes the lead naturally.

These are full time workers exposed to lead daily. Yes, they are required to, follow procedures, wear PPE, use mechanical equipment such as extraction systems to reduce exposure. But none the less many have low levels of lead in the blood almost constantly.

Lead exposure is easy to manage. Young children are a different matter.

A large part of the problem is people repeating that nonsense on the www without checking the facts or having any knowledge on the matter.

And I'll add, similar nonsense is spruked about CO. Yes, It can be dangerous, but is exceptionally easy to manage.

I think its about time society in general, especially politicians are educated to understand that life is full of risks. Nothing is 100% safe. The exposure of lead should be very low on their list of priorities.

I'm inclined to agree with you Oldbloke. Although I'm not disputing lead being bad in our system.
But there are a whole pile of people out there that have turned scaremongering in to a very lucrative business opportunity.
If we read the contents of numerous items on supermarket shelves, according to some, a number of those ingredients will turn us belly up in no time.
I know people who think smelling a coffee bean is going to cause life long issues.

Surely you mean Life without the smell or taste of coffee will cause life long issues

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Surely you mean Life without the smell or taste of coffee will cause life long issues

Marty, you’d have lead in your veins, much like me. Started with a mouth full lead paint off the cot, then learning to burn lead paint off the house with an acetylene torch and scraper, then the early teens, with a mouth full of slugs.
Then into the big time, reloading! Casting lead projectiles, without correct ventilation and learning to burn them was a few years away.
In my 60s I became a bit more cautious, 15 years later and I don’t care.
I have a mate, now in his 80s, makes my effort of lead poisoning fade into insignificance. Got tested for lead poisoning every year, gave up testing in his 70s, never had a positive result.

We've met on a number of occasions, even though I must contain a small amount of lead due to the above activities I consider myself to be perfectly normal. I'm sure you will agree with that self diagnosis.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

We've met on a number of occasions, even though I must contain a small amount of lead due to the above activities I consider myself to be perfectly normal. I'm sure you will agree with that self diagnosis.

Well I've just thought of something.
Remember me harping on about how well you soaked up the recoil of that 505 of Friwis at Taranaki?
If Maca is right and you have all this lead in your veins, you are basically a walking lead sled.

I don't recall you praising my "uprightness" after firing it, but I do recall the small ginger chap that it blew backwards so he lost control and fumbled it all the way to the ground.

Originally Posted by Oldbloke

Nonsense. You watch too much woke TV. If that was the case Lead would be banned and we wouldn't be digging it up. lead acid batteries, lead dive weights, lead fishing sinkers, none of them would exist.

Dont know about NZ, but workers/employees in AU are considered safe and healthy with low levels of lead in their blood. Regular testing is required. At a trigger point workers are removed from potential exposure for a few months until their lead blood levels return to normal Note, no medical intervention is required. The body removes the lead naturally.

These are full time workers exposed to lead daily. Yes, they are required to, follow procedures, wear PPE, use mechanical equipment such as extraction systems to reduce exposure. But none the less many have low levels of lead in the blood almost constantly.

Lead exposure is easy to manage. Young children are a different matter.

A large part of the problem is people repeating that nonsense on the www without checking the facts or having any knowledge on the matter.

And I'll add, similar nonsense is spruked about CO. Yes, It can be dangerous, but is exceptionally easy to manage.

I think its about time society in general, especially politicians are educated to understand that life is full of risks. Nothing is 100% safe. The exposure of lead should be very low on their list of priorities.

I recall somewhere that blood lead is the easy way to measure lead in the body - but not the only way the body accumulates lead. It also accumulates in the long bones during growth, and in parts of the body that don't readily exchange it with the blood (which is why it takes so long for the blood lead levels to drop as the 'slow tissues' release it back into the blood). This is one of the reasons for the current popularity of anti-lead - the effects on kids who are laying down a lot of calcium for the formation of bones (lead being a similar metal element to calcium I think is the order of battle there).

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

We've met on a number of occasions, even though I must contain a small amount of lead due to the above activities I consider myself to be perfectly normal. I'm sure you will agree with that self diagnosis.

We are lucky it goes to your feet and not your head, I have enough troubles with my neck.
I’ve only met one person with lead poisoning, we were shooting .22 at Te Puke every week. He said that’s where he got it.
I still think it was an excuse not to mix with people like me. He came right very quickly after leaving

Originally Posted by Oldbloke

Nonsense. You watch too much woke TV. If that was the case Lead would be banned and we wouldn't be digging it up. lead acid batteries, lead dive weights, lead fishing sinkers, none of them would exist.

Dont know about NZ, but workers/employees in AU are considered safe and healthy with low levels of lead in their blood. Regular testing is required. At a trigger point workers are removed from potential exposure for a few months until their lead blood levels return to normal Note, no medical intervention is required. The body removes the lead naturally.

These are full time workers exposed to lead daily. Yes, they are required to, follow procedures, wear PPE, use mechanical equipment such as extraction systems to reduce exposure. But none the less many have low levels of lead in the blood almost constantly.

Lead exposure is easy to manage. Young children are a different matter.

A large part of the problem is people repeating that nonsense on the www without checking the facts or having any knowledge on the matter.

And I'll add, similar nonsense is spruked about CO. Yes, It can be dangerous, but is exceptionally easy to manage.

I think its about time society in general, especially politicians are educated to understand that life is full of risks. Nothing is 100% safe. The exposure of lead should be very low on their list of priorities.

I don't know about here, but in the UK when I was working with Pb we were tested regularly, and moved to another line (and given a re-education) if our blood levels climbed. Just like you have explained.

Non the less I found the RNZ piece an interesting read.

The surest indicator of a studies findings is the source of funding.

People tend to try to not upset the paymaster.

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

The surest indicator of a studies findings is the source of funding.

People tend to try to not upset the paymaster.

You're right.

I've attended a lot of Resource Consent hearings where "independent expert" witnesses give contradictory evidence on the same subject. The expert advice closely matches the person's paying position.

Plumbers used to get a pint of milk each day when doing lead work. Even when I was an apprentice carpenter in the 80's our company plumber got the milk when lead working. That was in England with an old school village building company

If you do get some lead in your system, your body will clean it out in a month. Lead is not cumulative.

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

Plumbers used to get a pint of milk each day when doing lead work. Even when I was an apprentice carpenter in the 80's our company plumber got the milk when lead working. That was in England with an old school village building company

Used to be the thing for welding Galv coated metal too - although I think it has basically been debunked now and PAPR or extraction machinery is the preferred way now.

Originally Posted by John Duxbury

If you do get some lead in your system, your body will clean it out in a month. Lead is not cumulative.

I used to think this way too, although a person I met recently was saying they had issues with getting rid of the lead out of their system. They were saying that the exposure they had was over a considerable period of time, and it meant that it took longer than they were told it would take to get their levels down. I expect there was some more detail to that story that I didn't get, but from that sample of one I'm not sure it's a given that every person can clear elevated lead levels in a month?

as a former psychiatric nurse i recall nursing quite a few people who had suffered brain damage due to lead. salient points -a couple old time plumbers /drainlayers had over decades been consistently exposed to very high lead levels on a daily basis another 3 i can recall were born to parents at least one of whom again was a consistently exposed to very high levels of lead and ingested the same the4 damage to the person was considered to have occurred in the uteris as the feotus progressed through its developmental stages-these people were profoundly impacted .Whilst i agree lead is bloody dangerous occasional exposure or ingestion of minute quantities could in a lot of cases be Normalised .BTW FYI I nursed at least two old cobblers whod suffered brain damage through constant exposure to hot pots of old time cobblers glue mixes . Me -I get quite preturbed when i see cycling cyril or peddling priscilla gaily trundling along with infants toddlers strapped to the back of the family bicycle with their wee faces at the level of bus truck and car exhausts do our greenies ever consider that??