• sith@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    Is there any similar study done on hunters or people who eat meat from animals shot with lead bullets? Sometimes I wonder if lead from bullets make gun slingers and game meat eaters more removed. I.e. MAGA folks basically.

    • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      Lead from bullets in wild game are a non issue generally. It’s not staying in the animal long enough to leech out.

      However, casting your own bullets from spent ones without proper safety equipment(happens WAY more than you’d think, especially amongst prepper types), handling them a lot and not washing your hands after, and generally being exposed to lead dust IS a problem.

      I hate that I know all that, but being in an unfortunate proximity to those types of individuals has taught me a lot.

      • sith@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        Yes, that happens for sure. I did look into making my own ammunition, but it’s just not worth it. Even though ammunition is really expensive nowadays.

        Also, I’ve only been using non-lead bullets for non-practice. But I wouldn’t dare tell the old guys. ;-)

        Most older experienced hunters I know did cast their own practice ammo at some point in their life. Probably on their kitchen table without any safety equipment.

        • EchoCranium@lemmy.zip
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          6 days ago

          Making your own is worthwhile for oddball loads and custom rounds for rifle, and some pistol ammo. Something like 9mm just isn’t worth the time anymore after the cost of primers and powder more than doubled. I’ve been casting and loading for a bit over 10 years. Definitely want to wash your hands well after you finish, and no eating or drinking while you work. A little lead exposure doesn’t worry me, all my years working in labs around concentrated chemicals and drug actives are much more likely to cause me issues as I get older.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      That wouldn’t be enough to cause real damage tbh.

      Lead is toxic but you still need quite a bit of it and it’s absorbed wildly differently based on medium. That’s why the Romans could have lead pipes that were mostly not that dangerous due to their water being very hard while leaded gasoline used tetraethyl lead which is more potent and it’s inhaled rather than ingested.

      Basically eating/drinking lead contaminated resources only give you like 1-10% of the actual poison while inhaling gives you the full 100%

      • sith@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        You’re correct. The risk is there, but it’s not high.

        It has been known for centuries that lead is toxic to humans. Chronic exposure to lead, even at low levels, is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease in adults and of impaired neurodevelopment and subsequent cognitive and behavioural development in the foetus and young children. Health agencies throughout the world have moved from assuming that there are tolerable levels of exposure to lead to a recognition that valid ‘no-effect’ thresholds cannot currently be defined. Formerly, the most important exposure pathways were occupational exposure, water from lead plumbing, paints, petrol additives and foods. Regulation of products and improved health and safety procedures at work have left dietary lead as the main remaining pathway of exposure in European countries. Ammunition-derived lead is now a significant cause of dietary lead exposure in groups of people who eat wild game meat frequently. These are mostly hunters, shoot employees and their families, but also some people who choose to eat game for ethical, health or other reasons, and their children. Extrapolation from surveys conducted in the UK and a review of studies of game consumption in other countries suggest that approximately 5 million people in the EU may be high-level consumers of lead-shot game meat and that tens of thousands of children in the EU may be consuming game contaminated with ammunition-derived lead frequently enough to cause significant effects on their cognitive development.

        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6675757/

        Apparently, the human stomach dissolves small bullet fragments of metallic lead. That’s probably bad.

        Experiments of solubility showed that lead fragments from bullets dissolve in chlo- ric acid of the same concentration as in the stomach of humans

        https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/globalassets/publikationsdatabas/rapporter/2014/bly-i-viltkott---del-1-ammunitionsrester-och-kemisk-analys.pdf

      • reddit_sux@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        You don’t need lead.

        Romans did develop lead toxicity but it was delayed because of the calcium salts in the hard water making a preventive layer. Which made leaching of the lead difficult.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      6 days ago

      Lol painting with a pretty broad brush there, ain’cha?

      Maybe research your hypothesis a bit before you wildly lump sustenance hunters, omnivores, and gun owners as being “[stupid] MAGA folks basically” by default because they’ve…(flips papers)…‘Handled ammunition before.’ lol