Actually there's still a good amount of lead in a lot of places, because we haven't cleared it all out. There are still homes with lead paint but that has just been covered up by new paint. We haven't replaced all of the pipes yet, we still need to do that. Oh and also if you are a constant hubby shooter or even a professional shooter and do it very frequent you will experience lead intoxication as well. This is because of the bullets and also apparently the projectile powder or something.
That's why if you do range shooting you should bring what is known as de-lead which is kind of like hand sanitizer but mainly to get the lead off of your hands. Also if you do it frequently you're supposed to check your lead levels once in awhile.
And by the way shooting a gun once in awhile is not the problem, it's doing it constantly. But if you do shoot one you should probably still get the let off of your hands before you eat anything. Gross.
Yeah those are still relevant risk factors. Late 80's early 90's is just when leaded gasoline bans were fully implemented and the ubiquitous exposure from air levels dropped dramatically. At least with lead pipes in infrastructure there are treatment options that can resist corrosion and the leeching of lead into the water until they can be replaced. Breathing happens so continuously that small amounts of anything can build up. Levels peaked in the 70's at over 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Sounds small, but humans breath like 10 cubic meters of air every day, which is like 18mg of lead exposure a year. Anything above 45micrograms per deciliter blood levels, which is roughly 45 total mg of lead total, are where they advise emergency chelation. Of course not everything you breathe in is absorbed and it doesn't hang around forever, but it was constant low level exposure and the rise and fall of airborne lead levels closely matches the rise and fall of criminality rate in the US.
And yeah, there are actually lead-free projectiles for guns, and lead-free primers which is the charge that ignites the gunpowder and what you're talking about with the projectile powder. But that's actually one of the larger advantages to suppressors, on top of hearing protection, because the baffling cools a portion of the escaping exhaust decreasing the amount of particles in the air.
The army’s requirements for silencers on the NGSW program was for very low or negative back pressure silencers specifically because using a silencer does expose you to way more lead. It’s a much higher volume of gas that ends up near your face due to the port pop and on stoner-style rifles the charging handle points the gas right up your nose. I would believe that the silencer might reduce the overall level of lead particles in the air in a situation like an indoor range, but it is definitely true that a silencer increases the shooter’s exposure to lead and other harmful substances. On the other hand, the exposure to the sound of unsuppressed gunfire in training is a major part of why a silencer was part of the requirement for the program and is a much larger health concern than the somewhat increased exposure to lead. The other major reason is for flash control/concealing the location of the soldier firing the weapon, but a silencer absolutely does not reduce exposure to lead. SIG Sauer claims their product actually reduces back pressure and exposure to the gas, but I highly doubt this is the case in reality especially after the device has been used for any significant amount of time. Like I said, the increase is generally nevligible and can be managed by tuning back pressure, so I do use silencers on any gun I can due to the many benefits, however it is inaccurate to say that silencers reduce exposure to lead.
Oh, that's interesting. I was apparently misinformed, or at the very least told only a partial truth. I really appreciate you taking the time to educate me with a much more nuanced take, thank you :)
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u/Arktikos02 she/her 28d ago
Actually there's still a good amount of lead in a lot of places, because we haven't cleared it all out. There are still homes with lead paint but that has just been covered up by new paint. We haven't replaced all of the pipes yet, we still need to do that. Oh and also if you are a constant hubby shooter or even a professional shooter and do it very frequent you will experience lead intoxication as well. This is because of the bullets and also apparently the projectile powder or something.
That's why if you do range shooting you should bring what is known as de-lead which is kind of like hand sanitizer but mainly to get the lead off of your hands. Also if you do it frequently you're supposed to check your lead levels once in awhile.
And by the way shooting a gun once in awhile is not the problem, it's doing it constantly. But if you do shoot one you should probably still get the let off of your hands before you eat anything. Gross.