I feel it's irresponsible to promote a cavalier attitude towards the health hazards of lead.

The average blood lead level for an adult is 3 mcg/dL. https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2584.pdf

Who interprets your lead level tests? Right now the acceptable level for a child is 5 mcg/dL. Only a few years ago it was 10. If you are an older male I could see a doctor telling you that you have no problem with lead even though you have a fairly high level. For one thing, they don't use chelation therapy until you are up around 45 mcg/dL for a child or 80 for an adult. A doctor could tell you you're fine only because they don't want to send you for treatment, or perhaps your insurance wouldn't pay for it.

My point is a doctor could tell you that you don't have a problem, only because they don't recommend chelation treatment at this time. That doesn't mean the lead in your blood isn't affecting your health. My doctor told me there is NO acceptable blood lead level, but I think she is being very cautious.

The dain brammage is caused by the rolling pin she applied to the side of your noggin - not the reloading itself.

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Boy, such an aggressive response seems to imply an unstated problem.

My cavalier attitude is directed at the topic at hand, i.e., "reloading" causing brain damage. I think most educated people understand the hazards of lead and take appropriate precautions. But to imply that reloading or shooting is hazardous is a stretch.

A blood test less than 10 mcg/dl is considered a background level. A person is assumed to have lead exposure exhibits a reading over 10.

I started shooting at about age 13. I started casting boolits at age 26. At that time some old codgers at my club warned me that it was a bad practice. At that time in my career I was semi-involved in environmental health testing of employees in factories owned by my company. We wired them up twice a year for a week and monitored their ingestion of the air in their workplace. With that background, and for my own benefit I obtained a reprint of a government study of lead exposure when melting lead and casting boolits. That data convinced me to set up a casting facility in my basement.

At age 66 my blood level was 5. My doctor said that the reading showed showed no discernible lead exposure. That confirmed the data presented by NY in the previous link. I guess the doctor didn't lie to me either.

Lots of thread drift, but,

I'm one of those guys that have been casting my own, shooting them at indoor ranges for a few decades and my annual blood tests show normal ranges (and I even worked downtown LA for 20 years, not in an office). One of the most "warned about" subject connected to shooting/reloading is lead poisoning. Waaaay to much false info and "Chicken Little" posts on forums today. Some posters would have you decked out in a full Haz-Mat suit complete with Hepa filtered breathing apparatus, elbow length leather gauntlets, full length leather aprons, and only cast in a controlled environment (like a paint booth with one hundred thousand air exchanges per hour). My employer provided annual physicals including blood testing for lead. My lungs are in pretty good shape for a 74 year old even though I have used a wobbler to clean my brass, dry for 25+ years, and my last blood test, just 4 months ago showed lower/normal lead/heavy metals levels. (as long as I have been visiting forums and reading reloading/shooting info. I have only read of one person with high (dangerous?) blood/lead level; a man in Alaska that cast and sold bullets in a shed for 30 years). But I too am concerned with what newer casters see/read, and some are probably scared away from casting because of the scare tactics/"warnings" they may read on a forum. Actually I don't care what "precautions" anyone may take for their "safety" and I normally don't rant about Chicken Little posters. My only brain damage shows up in replying to old wives' tales and fearful "warnings"...

Just K.I.S.S, and use common sense (a scarce commodity today)...

"Does Reloading cause Brain damage?"

I some times think NOT Reloading causes Brain damage!

P.S. It keeps me thinking.

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SD social distanc'n since 1889

If I didn't reload I could only afford a range trip a couple times a year. With today's prices maybe once a year.

So not only do I get out once or twice a month, I can shoot all I want to.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

It's a proven "fact"...
In Men ... the leading cause of brain damage ... are Wives .

Reloading has nothing to do with anything ...
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Reminds me of a friend I had. He and his wife argued often, him being one of the "hard guys" in school and her being half Asian half Irish. I once visited him after an argument he had with his wife, in the hospital. He had turned his back on her during an argument and the last thing he could remember was "Don't turn your back on me you ***!". She "tapped" him on the head with the hard edge of a Los Angeles phone book. Now that was brain (and scalp, hair and skull) damage...

You got that right..................

that cast iron frying pan, really hurts !!!!

Actually if you want to get right down to it, males are born brain damaged.

From what I have read it is proven scientific fact that testosterone destroys connections between the two halves of the brain as males develop in the womb.

This is why men are generally so much better at separating logical though from emotional thought. We think with one half of our brain at a time - the left half is more focused on logic and the right half is more focused on feelings and emotion. This ability to separate the logical from the emotional is what they call "compartmentalizing" and most men are very good at it.

Females are born with a lot more of those connections between the two halves of the brain intact. That is why they generally think about both the logical and the emotional aspects of things at the same time. They are using both halves of the brain all of the time. This makes compartmentalizing more difficult for women.

So in a sense, we are born brain damaged in that some of the right-to-left brain connections we started out with were destroyed prior to birth by the testosterone in our systems.

The good news is that when we do something stupid we have an excuse - we were born brain damaged

So maybe that answers the chicken or the egg question and it really is a case of the brain damaged being attracted to reloading, rather than the reloading causing the brain damage.

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Let’s just say I have my own toaster oven in the garage for powder coating bullets and drying brass

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-Matt

Got a buddy with a nice stove sitting in his shed. She made him buy a new one after he used theirs for baking on a Cerakote like gun finish. Guess it stinks.

There is a fairly recent Facebook page for discussing the use of Dillon Precision presses for handloading. I have been using Dillon presses since the early 1990s so I thought I might help. However, after watching the site for a few weeks, I have concluded that brain-damaged people are buying Dillon presses due to ammo scarcity.

Many of these people have NEVER handloaded any ammo ever, but they buy brand new Dillon 1050s, 1100s or 750s. This is clear proof of brain damage as they come on the Facebook page asking questions that should be elementary. It is pitiful but there may well be a lot of Dillon presses for sale in the near future.

I did finally post a comment about setting up a Dillon press: First-Never open and read the detailed set-up manual that comes with the press! Second-Never call the Dillon help/tech and get expert help. Third-Always go to the internet and get "help" from people you don't know!

The site may not last much longer because it has turned mean/nasty the last few days.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

I was given 2 Dillon 550s but that was years ago just because I’m such a swell guy and I think that I don’t have any drain bamage but my wife might disagree. For further proof of my mental prowess my son gave me a tee shirt that proudly states that ‘I’m no rocket surgeon.’ See!

I thought it was "rocket scientist"? Whomever printed the shirt might have been brain damaged.

I keep nothing but blunt-tip scissors in the house just in case my wife decides to operate on my skull.