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is it possible to be poisoned by lead pellets?


willbick
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in my teens i used to always hold pellets in my mouth for a fast follow up shot!, i also used to bite closed lead weights when fishing, even when it was banned i was given a large supply of lead which kept me going for years..

 

i know of someone who had a 177 pellet lodged in them for years as well, :yes:

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Lead, as with many other heavy metals, is a cumulative poison - so you may not notice any effects initially.

However it will still kill you in time, and the younger you start ingesting it, the worse the consequences.

So licking contaminated fingers, sucking pellets and particularly shooting yourself in the head are likely to impair your health

 

Click here!

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Most lead shot is alloyed to antimony etc which can affect uptake by the body. As an interesting case take a look at these cases...

 

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/...full/114/4/1096

 

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http://www.eorthopod.com/public/patient_ed..._poisoning.html

 

Gunshot Fragments Can Lead to Lead Poisoning

Posted May 12th, 2004 by Matt

in Spine General (involves multiple spine areas)

Lead poisoning is a major concern in America. Lead-based products such as paint, gasoline, and cans have been removed for the most part. Lead-based bullets are still in use because they break into pieces on impact, causing greater soft tissue damage. Anyone with bullet fragments still in the body is at risk for lead poisoning, a condition called plumbism.

 

In this study, doctors report on adults with bullet or bullet fragments in the intervertebral disc space. This is the space between the bones of the spine. Doctors found 238 patients with gunshot wounds to the spine at their hospital in Miami between 1969 and 1993. Only 12 of these patients still had a bullet fragment in their spines.

 

The researchers examined these 12 patients. They took X-rays and ran blood tests. There were no signs of lead poisoning from any of these tests for 11 patients. Only one patient had symptoms of plumbism. She reported fatigue and constipation. Both these symptoms went away when the bullet fragment was removed.

 

The authors say that with increasing urban violence, the number of gunshot wounds to the spine is also going up. They conclude that patients with gunshot fragments in the spine should be followed carefully on a long-term basis. Any signs of lead poisoning is a signal that the fragment should be taken out. The fragment could also move into the spinal canal, putting the spinal cord and spinal nerves at risk of injury.

 

 

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Lead poisoning after gunshot wound

Madureira,Paulo Roberto de

De Capitani,Eduardo Mello

Vieira,Ronan José

Location: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci...802000000300006

 

 

CONTEXT: Despite the absence of symptoms in the majority of patients carrying lead bullet fragments in their bodies, there needs to be an awareness of the possible signs and symptoms of lead intoxication when bullets are lodged in large joints like knees, hips and shoulders. Such patients merit closer follow-up, and even surgical procedure for removing the fragments. OBJECTIVE: To describe a patient who developed clinical lead intoxication several years after a gunshot wound. DESIGN: Case report. CASE REPORT: A single white 23-year-old male, regular job as a bricklayer, with a history of chronic alcohol abuse, showed up at the emergency department complaining of abdominal pain with colic, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea with black feces. All the symptoms had a duration of two to three weeks, and had been recurrent for the last two years, with calming during interval periods of two to three weeks. Abdominal radiograms showed a bullet lodged in the left hip, with a neat bursogram of the whole synovial capsule. A course of chelating treatment using calcium versenate (EDTACaNa2) intravenously was started. After the chelation therapy the patient had recurrence of his symptoms and a radical solution for the chronic mobilization of lead was considered. A hip arthroplasty procedure was performed, leading to complete substitution of the left hip.

 

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1: Am J Med. 1979 Mar;66(3):509-14.Links

Lead poisoning from a gunshot wound. Report of a case and review of the literature.Dillman RO, Crumb CK, Lidsky MJ.

A man was hospitalized on three occasions for symptoms of lead intoxication 20 to 25 years after a gunshot wound that resulted in retention of a lead bullet in his hip joint. The potential for lead toxicity as a complication of a lead missile injury appears to be related to (1) the surface area of lead exposed for dissolution, (2) the location of the lead projectile, and (3) the length of time during which body tissues are exposed to absorbable lead. Cases of lead poisoning of immediate onset resulting from lead shot have been reported in Europe, but all documented cases of ammunition-related plumbism reported in the United States have involved synovial fluid dissolution of a single lead bullet over many years. The solvent characteristics of synovial fluid and associated local arthritis are apparently important factors in the dissolution and absorption of lead from projectiles located in joints. Awareness that lead intoxication can be a complication of retained lead projectiles should allow rapid institution of appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic modalities when such a clinical situation arises.

 

PMID: 373435 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

 

 

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1: Hum Exp Toxicol. 1994 Nov;13(11):735-42.Links

Lead poisoning from retained lead projectiles. A critical review of case reports.Magos L.

BIBRA Toxicology International, Carshalton, Surrey, UK.

 

Case reports demonstrate that embedded lead projectiles (bullets, pellets) have the potential to cause lead poisoning. They also show that the relationship between blood lead concentration and lead poisoning is the same as in lead poisonings of occupational origin and that latent periods between lodgement and the onset of lead poisoning varies from less than a half year to several decades. Nevertheless neither the quantitative relationships between projectiles and blood concentrations nor the number at risk and the number affected are known. The aim of this review is to show the limitations of case studies through the analysis of negative and positive case reports, diagnostic and monitoring methods, differences between bullets and pellets, and factors affecting the disintegration of projectiles and the distribution of released lead.

 

PMID: 7857692 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Related ArticlesIncreased lead absorption and lead poisoning from a retained bullet. [J Okla State Med Assoc. 1989] Blood lead concentration in children after gunshot injuries. [s Afr Med J. 1988] Lead poisoning in a child after a gunshot injury. [J Fam Pract. 1992] ReviewThe gastrointestinal manifestations of gunshot-induced lead poisoning. [J Clin Gastroenterol. 1994] ReviewLead poisoning from a gunshot wound. Report of a case and review of the literature. [Am J Med. 1979] » See Reviews... | » See All...

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A little light reading :good::yes::yes:

 

 

But this is a shooting related article if a touch alarmist, and the cases reported are not referenced and thus may be inaccurate third hand reports... http://www.utexas.edu/safety/ehs/msds/lead.html

 

Lead can enter the body by breathing it in as a dust or vapor, by ingesting it, and to a lesser extend, by absorption through the skin. On the shooting range it tends to enter via all three routes. Every time you discharge a handgun a spray of lead erupts into the air around you. If you are shooting cast lead bullets, part of this lead is in the form of microscopic particles sheared from the bullet as it passes down the barrel. Down range, the bullet impacting on the armor plate emits a spray of fine lead particles. More importantly, the chemical commonly used in primers is lead styphnate, and detonating the primer discharges a cloud of molecular lead compounds. So the air on a shooting range -- even an extremely well ventilated range -- tends to contain a lot of lead, both as dust, and as gas. It settles in large amounts on the floor, and on other horizontal surfaces as well. Even if the range passes OSHA standards for airborne lead contamination (which many don't), you will still often find yourself standing in a cloud of lead filled gun smoke as the air currents eddy around you. All the while you are breathing in lead, about 30-50% of which will dissolve from your lungs into your bloodstream. If you have any doubts about this, just blow your nose when you leave the range after a lengthy shooting session. That black stuff in the mucous is the residue of gun smoke, and it contains a lot of lead.

 

The powder residue you get all over your hands also contains a lot of lead. Left on your hands, some of this can actually be absorbed directly through your skin. More importantly, if you eat with this residue still on your hands, you will contaminate your food with a significant amount of lead. You can also contaminate your food with residue from around your mouth, particularly if you have a mustache. Your breathing concentrates lead around your nose and upper lip, and a mustache will act as a filter to trap the particles and gases. Your sandwich or pizza will then carry those particles into your mouth. This is particularly important to realize, because although only about 10% of ingested elemental lead is absorbed, nearly 100% of ingested lead salts -- formed when you ignite the primer -- are absorbed. So ingestion is a very efficient way to absorb certain forms of lead.

 

Handling fired brass can result in the same problem. The powder residue on fired brass also contains a lot of chemical and particulate lead. The author knows of one individual who didn't spend much time on the range, but who regularly sorted brass while munching snacks, and gave himself serious lead poisoning in the process.

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I would have thought you would need to handle pellets an awful lot, then suck your fingers a lot to suffer any ill effects. Fumes from molten lead can be bad though. :hmm:

 

I once made myself very ill melting lead indoors to make sea fishing weights. I was puking for England for a while there - very scary.

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When I was youngster and rather silly, I used to keep just a few pellets in my mouth for some unfathomable reason and when my Dad saw me he told me that Lead could poison you eventually and even make your hair fall out. Well I haven't been posioned but a lot of my hair has fallen out and I'm not even 61 years old yet!!! :blink:

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