I have gotten into the habit of wearing rubber gloves when cleaning up my brass, and sorting bullets. Took a while to get used to it though.
I'm glad someone posted about this...never crossed my mind about the lead contamination concerns!
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I have a brass separator tumbler mounted on a 5-gal bucket. I put an old cotton pillow case in the bucket then attach the separator. I pour water, brass and pins into the separator and the water and pins go through into the pillow case. I rinse the brass with clean water while separating the remaining pins. I can then remove the separator and pillow case from the bucket and discard the water. I dump the pins into another container and rinse with water. I turn the pillow case inside out and rinse. All with very little contact with the dirty water.
I am not very good about this. I have gloves, but i very seldom use them. I do try to wash my hands immediately after handling cases or washing the brass. Maybe, that is the reason why my lead levels were a 24 the last time I had them checked. I assumed it was from a shooting cast lead in an indoor range. I guess I will start using my gloves again. Do you think it is needed when reloading? I would think It would be hard to use gloves during when using a progressive loader.
Not to beat it to death, but large chunks of metallic lead, like bullets, are relatively inert and pose little contamination hazard. Loading with clean components is not hazardous with normal precautions, like not smoking or touching your face, and washing your hands after loading.
It is the soluble lead salts left after firing a cartridge that are readily absorbed through the mouth, eyes, and lungs. Probably the MOST hazardous thing you can do is sweep up the residue dust on the floor of an indoor range without wearing a respirator, because the dust you breathe is absorbed into the blood in your lungs. If you fire on an indoor range, be sure the fans are on and pulling the air away from you downrange.
Care should be taken cleaning brass, as the residue on the fired brass contains the soluble lead salts.
Do you wash your hands after handing fired brass on the range? Consider any fired brass contaminated until it is properly cleaned.
I keep wipes in my car when I go shooting or hunting/ fishing.
You will be surprised how much stuff you can remove from your hands onto a damp baby wipe after shooting.
I handed a bunch to friends after shooting before we got into the cars to leave.. one fella declined until we got to the corner store for some eats.
He then asked if I had more of those..
They are cheap and take up little space in your car and are easy to use, so I see no reason to go around with all that on your hands.
You will be surprised how much stuff you can remove from your hands onto a damp baby wipe after shooting.
I handed a bunch to friends after shooting before we got into the cars to leave.. one fella declined until we got to the corner store for some eats.
He then asked if I had more of those..
They are cheap and take up little space in your car and are easy to use, so I see no reason to go around with all that on your hands.
I wash my hands as soon as I leave the range. I almost always wash my hands after sorting or reloading. Now I am concerned about my hands in the dirty water. I bet that does have a lot of lead dust in it. My kids help me sort the 380s out of the 9mm. I make them wear gloves, however I wonder if the dust off of the casings is a problem. I know the lead is even worse for the kids. I handled all kinds of lead as a kid. I remember melting lead on the stove in kitchen. That might explain a few things. ha ha Maybe I should clean it before they sort it.
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