Quote:
Originally Posted by NHDave
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Were the lead levels from a bullet ever evaluated as to their long-term poison potential?
Nope.
Everyone now knows lead is lethal when it enters into the human blood stream, but no studies had ever been done on bullets. Water, yes. Paint, yes. Pipes, yes. Mixed in gasoline, yes.
They're all dangerous, but no one knew how dangerous they were until a study was done on each of them. Each has its own level of hazard, but those levels were not known until they were studied and evaluated against other things that contain lead.
Lead poisoning was an old joke, a term for getting shot. The velocity of the lead bullet was the killer, not the lead. It was a cheap laugh, and a way to get the victim willing to undergo pain to get the bullet out if they survived the velocity.
With only 1% of the population walking around with bullet fragments, that's still a million people who are affected. Until the CDC study, no doctor could know the relative danger in removing a difficult fragment vs. just leaving it alone.
How many hunters have a couple of lead buckshot buried in the muscle tissue of their legs? Or vets, or plumbers who have collected sharp slivers of lead when working with lead pipe? How many shooting range employees? Or avid hobby shooters? They all pick up lead fragments.
How many cops are carrying a fragment? How many gun dealers? Innocent bystanders who got nicked by a ricochet?
How many home re-loaders are exposing themselves to lead poisoning every time they go down in the basement and hand-load a bunch of ammo? How much lead is contaminating their families from their re-loading? Stepping on a fragment is still putting lead into the body.
That's why the CDC did their study. It wasn't the knowledge lead kills people. They already knew that. What was unknown was very specific, and was unknown. Now, we all know that if you have a lead slug or a fragment resting in the lining of your heart, you stand a 5% chance the lead alone will eventually kill you if it's left there.
What you decide to do about it is up to you and your doctor, but the hazard of leaving it alone is now known, and it's not a laughing matter at all. That buckshot pellet in your butt could kill you too, even if it isn't causing any other damage to your body.
Now you know you (or your kid) can eat a lot more lead paint chips and still be safer than carrying that single pellet around in your butts. Or drink Flint water for a long longer, too.
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