138
Safe firearm storage may reduce blood lead levels in children (www.brown.edu)
submitted 1 month ago* by to c/science@lemmy.world
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I also want to know the mechanism for the increased lead levels. Are kids chewing on the bullets? Is lead somehow deposited in the home?

I think you can interpolate what's happening from this part:

Firing a gun leads to lead particles on clothing that come back home.

So it sounds to me, like when you fire a gun, a few things happen. The bullet travels down the barrel and as it does, it makes some contact with the barrel, some particles of lead scrape or spald off. These particles are largely expelled by the barrel exhaust, but some of it can be deposited in or on the gun. So any gun that has been fired many times becomes a source of lead particulates that can get into the air. I'd expect a gun safe provides the same amount of protection from this exposure as a zip lock bag would. (But i'd still recommend using the gun safe). Theoretically, you could also reduce this exposure by thoroughly cleaning the gun before bringing it into the home, though I have no idea what level of cleaning would be necessary to achieve this, it could be a lot.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I totally agree with your Ziploc bag analogy lol. If the only concern was reducing lead exposure, I bet just a plastic bag would be enough. However, if we are only talking about using the weapon and bringing it home, does storage really matter? If the particles are all over your clothes, you are just dragging that lead everywhere.

    I'm thinking it's more to do with what one of the other commenters said, lack of storage suggests a certain attitude. If you're not storing it, you are probably moving it around the house, cleaning it on the table, etc. So maybe both groups of people have the same amount of lead on their weapon, but the storage group takes it straight to the gun safe instead of leaving it in their pants and letting it sprinkle heavy metal surprises around the house?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago*

    You've pretty much got it, seemingly from first principles, good job!

    Yeah, thats... basically exactly what happens.

    Now, fully cleaning the gun after every usage... well, on the one hand, theoretically that would help with the gun being ... less of a profilic random micro/particulate lead dispenser.

    On the other hand, well, all that lead is now literally being handled by you, so, you need gloves, maybe a mask, maybe functionally a clean room as well.

    At that point, you might as well be a small armory, if you want to have all the stuff and practices in place to properly contain the particulate lead.

    Another big element at play is that different barrels basically corrode or gunk up differently.

    For example, chrome-lined barrels are generally slightly more expensive, have essentially greater durability or longetivity, but because of imperfections of the actual lining process, lead to slightly less accurate barrels.

    Chrome lined barrels would presumably have less lead exposure factor, due to lead having a harder time to stick to the barrel.

    Vs non chrome lined barrels that gunk up more quickly, but, when clean, can be slightly more accurate.

    There are other ways of coating or treating or just making a barrel, as well as many other kinds of seemingly esoteric details of gun design, that could potentially affect how much of an... 'ambient particulate lead exposure' risk it is.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent