LEAD HAZARDS

["TED S. BOHN" <BST@inel.gov>]

      Radiological Engineering (bst@inel.gov)
      6-1279  MS 4138  FAX 6-8959  Pager 5841
I'm sure that it's the chronic exposure to lead that is dangerous.  As a kid
my friends and I would mine the slugs at a local police gun range and melt
them down in mom's best kettle and make barbells out of them with acrid
fumes filling the house (Did I hear anyone just gasp?).
The regs would lead you to believe that one whiff
of those vapors would put you six feet under.  I guess unless we are panicked
we don't take warnings seriously.  Is there evidence of old time plumbers
suffering from the toxic affect of lead fumes and chronic exposures??

*** Reply to note of 06/06/96 09:21
To: RADSAFE --INELMAIL RADSAFE

Subject: LEAD HAZARDS
     And so now I must worry about lead?  It was bad enough to worry about
     my cholesterol every time I ate a chocolate-covered doughnut (my
     nemesis).  I worried so much about cholesterol that I stopped
     buttering my bacon.  I can hardy choke down an egg anymore, for fear
     of expiring on the spot.  I also religiously wear a dusk mask
     everytime I paint, varnish, lacquer or spray anything.  This is
     because if you read the warning notices on the cans of these things,
     only a fool would allow them in the house, let alone actually use
     them. I no longer smoke. I no longer eat red meat, cheese, chinese
     food, Starbuck's scones, nuts, avocados, and a host of other things
     for health reasons and mainly because I'm scared stiff.  A hot dog has
     not slipped past my lips for over a decade.  And now lead.  But the
     fear of lead is encroaching upon the sacrosanct!  I am a fisherman.  I
     go fishing at every opportunity, and I use a lot of lead sinkers.
     Some of the sinkers are even made for biting when you put them on or
     remove them from the line.  I must have twice-biten at least a
     thousand sinkers in my day.  If I knew the symptoms of lead poisoning,
     I'm sure I'd feel them.  But I refuse to hamper my fishing in any way
     whatsoever.

     Seriously, I never have had a good perspective on the real hazards of
     lead.  I know chronic inhalation of lead compounds (from lead
     smelters, air pollution, etc. can raise blood levels of lead and have
     some deleterious effects on developing children and also horses).  But
     really, do fisherman like myself have a real concern about lead?  Any
     experts out there?