Dangers In Reloading?...

J

JeepHammer

Moderator
Now, I wear gloves when handling lead or fired brass that hasn't been cleaned.

I have ventilation so I don't breathe CASE dust, smoke from annealing, lead dust, tumbler dust, etc.

I ALWAYS have eye protection, (I wear glasses, and just buy safety lenses for everything)

What I didn't expect was to get a very painful lump on the bottom of my foot...
Just had outpatient surgery & got biopsy results back...
Piece of brass shaving ('swarf') started it.

The ONLY time I'm around brass without work boots on is when at the reloading bench... usually running shoes or even sock footed...
Since this is what I often do to relax.

Looks like the 'Fuzzy Bunny' slippers are getting retired :(
(Love my fuzzy bunny slippers!)
 
And I use shorts, T-shirts, maybe sandals, no gloves or anything else..........all tests negative, every year
 
Commonly in jeans, tshirt, tennish shoes with latex gloves (normally just to provide extra grip and keep the case lube off my hands). For casting I upgrade to shooting glasses, paper mask, and leather gloves.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
I just don't see any exposure
To harmful chemicals when reloading.
Annealing 20 308 cases.
What's toxic coming from them?
The cases don't even get very
Hot.
The bullets are all jacketed
No lead exposed.
I use lanolin and alcohol for
My lube, which is good for my
Skin.
I put on glasses when trimming
Not to get a piece of brass in
My eye and ruin my day.

If I was casting bullets from
Lead , different issue
 
Bytesniffer,
The inside of the case often doesn't get very clean, and if you see 'Smoke' that's heavy metal ladened residue burning (aerosolized) heavy metal ladened vapor.
I clean with steel pins that get the inside of the cases MUCH cleaner and even with heavy annealing produce virtually no smoke.

I can't tell you the Quantity of heavy metals in the smoke,
But the content is lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, antimony, copper and a couple nasty acids.
Most of the metals ride into the mix from the carbon base material used in the 'Gun Powder' & primer material.
The high combustion temp of the primer/powder burn has seperate out the heavy metals, left behind when the carbon burned away, condensing the nasties in the case.

It's like anything else, just handling a few once in a while, no problems,
Do half million runs and you have considerably more exposure.

---

I use the cheap grippy gloves, hangs onto lubed cases better than bare fingers.
Had a blood test for an insurance company several years back, elevated levels of heavy metals, particularly lead,
I was working in a machine shop all day, casting, loading & shooting a lot of lead bullets in my off time.

Paying attention to ventilation (small bathroom type fan) & gloves, the next year I came back clean.

Eyeglasses should be self explanatory, I can't see without them, and polycarbonate 'safety lenses' make the glasses tax deductible, and I'm not always having to change glasses,
With the added value I don't look like a dork wearing those wood shop goggles!

I'm often in slippers when loading, I have a tendency to get comfortable and waste time at my favorite hobby...
Just didn't work out for me this time.
I haven't seen the sliver that causes me to bang into my $3,500 deductible yet, but I'm betting I picked it up in the reloading room.

Expensive little piece of trash, painful too!
 
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Everybody dies, that don't scare me.
I might live to be 90 sitting the last 20 years in a diaper, screaming at kids to get off my lawn & blabbering on endlessly about 'The Good Old Days' that scares the crap out of me...

I want to go nice & peaceful in my sleep with a full belly like my grandpa did,
Not screaming & pitching a fit like the passengers in his car did! ;)
 
I forgot to mention , I'm
More nervous about static
Electric setting off a primer
Then other concerns.
The cold winter, dry air from
Heating , you can build up thousands
Of volts of static electricity.
So I ran a wire from my press
To the ground of one of the
Outlets behind the bench
To discharge any sparks.
I don't touch the primers
But just being overly safe.

Also, if I anneal any brass
I only heat the brass with the propane
For 8 seconds. Don't notice
Any smoke coming from them.
They necks never are red.
They do sizzle a little when I drop them
On the wet towel.
I also don't anneal many at once and
The room is very large.
So, for me it doesn't seem to be am issue.
 
Bytesniffer, with static electricity. it is almost impossible to set off a primer. A little easier powder and easier still powder dust.

A stoichiometric mixture of propane in air is almost impossible to set off with static electricity and that has a LOT less thermal mass that solids.
 
Let's not forget the danger of pinching your finger when holding a bullet straight on the case as it enters the seating die. Don't ask me why I thought of that. ;)
 
The number 1 concern for me is the primer residue from decapping fired brass. It is compound lead in powder form; most efficient in causing lead poisoning. Some presses has mechanism to capture the spent primers as soon as it drops out; the co-ax press being the best. But mine doesn't, so I stopped decapping on it.

I have my own poor man setup for decapping. It is being done manually inside a plastic bag to capture the residue. The decapped brass will be cleaned immediately with wet tumbling. I feel better doing that, although it is more work. Not only for myself, but for the 2 kids in the house.

-TL
 
I don't wet tumble, so I have always wondered: what do you guys do with the lead contaminated water when you get thru tumbling???

I am wondering this because of what Flint MI is going thru with their lead contaminated water.
 
Primer residue is the culprit. Federal lists lead, barium, antimony, aluminum and a trace of zinc and copper from the brass cup and anvil. CCI lists only lead and barium in their MSDS, but the trace amounts of zinc and copper seem likely to apply. I am unaware of any other metals being found in it these days. The powders don't have any heavy metals in them.

We had a board member a few years ago who had a friend who did lead testing professionally go over his whole loading bench area. They found no significant lead anywhere except around the tumbler and case separator. Not even at his bullet casting bench. I suppose this fellow kept his work area clean. I'd have expected the area of the bench near the decapping activities to have contamination, though two of my presses do a very good job of containing that, but they don't all do it well, and I don't know what setup this fellow had. I don't know how he manages his lead dross, either. But the bottom line seems to be that it isn't that easy to get the water-soluble forms of lead (the dangerous kind) loose in your work area.

I saw a TV show back when the Flint Michigan water problem was newly discovered, and they had an actual length of lead pipe in a vice in a plumbing shop to discuss, and the shop guy and the newscaster both had nitrile gloves on, apparently being afraid to even touch the stuff. The water-soluble forms and stomach acid soluble oxide are toxic, but being scared to touch the metallic form strikes me as precaution carried to the point of silliness. I soldered wires without gloves for forty years, cast bullets and certainly handled huge numbers of them when reloading. But it's just not that easy to be contaminated by the metallic form of lead. Wash your hands after shooting or reloading and before eating. Pretty much, that's the whole trick. Normal personal hygiene. A friend of mine always keeps a container of baby wipes in his vehicle and uses them to clean his hands after shooting and before he opens the picnic basket. It's enough. He doesn't have high lead levels either.
 
If folks applied their "safety methods" used when reloading to everyday life, we'd see many, folks driving with a full fire/leather suit, full face helmet, nitrile gloves all the time, disinfecting spray (used like mace), anti-germ wipes, SPF 300 for any sun exposure, full face shields when not using helmet, steel toed full length boots, and an armed guard escorting them to the supermarket...:p
 
Well, you remind me that I only mentioned lead. I agree completely with having safety glasses on whenever primers are being used. I think the bunny slippers are still good to go if you put boot covers over them. ;)
 
Any foot wear is safe provided one can keep their foot of their own mouth. LOL


I skip the safety glasses as my normal eye glasses are polycarbonate. For hearing protection my hearing aids work for up to most pistol calibers for noise reduction. My biggest safety hazard is an angry wife if I leave a mess.
 
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