Elkins45
Member
Join Date: December 25, 2009
Location: Northern KY
Posts: 193
You would expect a metal with an atomic weight of 207 to behave the same as water?
Lead bullet casting happens around 700K. The vapor pressure of Pb at that temperature is somewhere around 0.000001 mm Hg. To give you an idea of just how low that is, normal atmospheric pressure is 760 mm Hg.
http://www.powerstream.com/vapor-pressure.htm if you want to verify my numbers. I won't claim you can't poison yourself through accidental ingestion, and powder of the oxide can be an issue, but you aren't going to breathe enough Pb vapor to do it. It's just too heavy an atom.
Plus, think about all the anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Back in the days of molten lead type lithographers spent hours in rooms full of vats of molten Linotype and we don't see reams of stories of typesetters keeling over dead at a young age.