What about shooting ranges? Heard hickock45 on Youtube crunching as he walked and realized that the gravel I was seeing was actually spent casings. Maybe another reason not to take the kids to the range. Do COVID-mitigation factors help with lead dust/aerosols?
Yes, gunsmoke does contain lead and it's not something you want to breathe in. Surgical masks will do very little, N99 or respirators will do better. However it's best practice to always wash your hands and preferably shower after shooting.
This also applies to handling or reloading ammo. Primers are lead-based compounds (generally lead styphnate) and most bullets are either soft lead or jacketed lead. If you are handling ammo, bullets, or spent casings, wash your hands after.
There is obviously a continuum of exposure and different routes of exposure here. Lead on your hands isn't ideal but if you don't touch your face or eat with dirty hands, kinda whatever. With smoke, you breathe it in simply by being there. You definitely want to look at the airflow on an indoor range, there should be a considerable amount of "whoosh" and palpable airflow, and even then it's probably still a low or moderate amount of exposure. Outdoors ranges will have even less exposure, but probably still not zero, you're still right near the breech.
And yeah generally kids are more susceptible to lead exposure than adults. Not that it's great for adults but it will truly mess up your development to get significant exposure as a child.
"orange lava soap" with the pumice in it is also better than just regular hand soap, as it's more abrasive and will do a better job scraping the lead off.
All good, but what about the lead leaching into the ground and water at outdoor ranges? Is there any requirement to test if e.g. you shoot on private property?
In Canada you could be licenced to shoot outdoors on your own property (e.g. PAL + non-restricted firearm), but not be allowed to use the area habitually, or repeatedly as that would make it a shooting range. It seems like having a shooting gallery or plinking spot with persistent targets would fail the test.
No requirements, no tests. There's a bunch of stories of indoor gun ranges being horrifically contaminated, due to lead from the primer compounds when ignited + vaporized lead from the back of the bullet (back of the bullet is almost always exposed lead core, so you get some vaporized with the explosion). Some maintenance workers, demolition crews etc working on these buildings have had terrible, life altering exposures.
I do a lot of shooting and avoid indoor ranges. They are so contaminated there are many cases of cops coming home and poisoning their kids due to contamination on clothing, shoes, etc.
I personally buy "clean fire" ammo, which has no exposed lead core on the bullet, and has clean burning primers. More expensive, but I like to keep my brain healthy, and I have kids that could easily get exposed.
