Fishing, Shooting, Stained Glass: Keeping Hobby Lead Out of Your Car and Home

Fishing, Shooting, Stained Glass: Keeping Hobby Lead Out of Your Car and Home

WellOfNess •
#lead#take-home lead#fishing tackle#shooting#stained glass#lead dust

If you cast sinkers or bullets, shoot at a range, reload ammunition or work with stained glass, the lead in your hobby doesn’t stay at the workbench. CDC and EPA both list these hobbies as lead sources, and both point to the same route into a home: adults may bring lead home with them and expose their families to lead without knowing. The weak spot is the routine in between: the drive home from the range, the jacket thrown over a kitchen chair, the shoes worn across the living room carpet. Below is what the two agencies name, how the dust travels, EPA’s steps in its own words, and when to ask a health care provider about a blood test.

Casting, shooting, glazing: the hobbies the agencies name

CDC’s list of hobbies that may expose people to lead includes casting or soldering bullets, fishing weights or stained glass. It also lists mixing or applying glaze or pigments containing lead, drinking home-distilled liquids such as moonshine, and shooting firearms during target practice.

EPA’s list overlaps with CDC’s but adds a few items. It names fishing with tackle containing lead, making stained glass, stock car racing, and shooting and reloading lead ammunition. The most useful line on EPA’s page is about how concentrated the metal is: lead is found in especially high levels in ammunition, fishing tackle (like sinkers, lures, and jigs), and wheel balancing weights used on cars.

Anglers, reloaders and anyone who works on a car will see their own gear in that list.

Why the car matters as much as the house

EPA’s wording puts the car in the path too. On job sites, EPA says, lead dust can end up on skin, hair, clothing or equipment, potentially transferring to their car or home and put families at risk. The agency’s take-home advice applies to hobbies as well as jobs. It says to change clothes and shoes that might carry lead dust before leaving your workplace or entering your vehicle or home. An older version of EPA’s guidance said it more simply: shower and change clothes before entering your vehicle or coming home.

The vehicle is where range clothes, tackle boxes and car seats share a small space. Once dust reaches the house, CDC says it can be tracked onto carpets, floors, furniture, and other surfaces that a child may touch. EPA adds that settled lead dust can re-enter the air when the home is vacuumed or swept or when people walk through it.

EPA’s main concern with lead dust is young children who crawl, play on floors and put their fingers, toys and other objects in their mouths.

EPA’s steps for keeping lead in the hobby space

EPA’s page doesn’t ask anyone to give up fishing, shooting or glasswork. It is about where the dust goes. Here are EPA’s steps in its own words:

  1. Keep all work and hobby materials away from living areas, especially places children frequent.
  2. Change clothes and shoes before entering your vehicle or home.
  3. Wash your work and hobby clothes separately from the rest of your family’s clothes.
  4. Leave shoes outside your home if they might contain lead dust.
  5. Shower after shooting guns or working on cars and before spending time in your home.
  6. Avoid handling food or touching your mouth or face while working with lead materials, and wash your hands before eating or drinking after activities involving lead.
  7. Never put leaded materials (such as fishing sinkers, lead came or solder for stained glass, or leaded pottery clay or glaze) in your mouth.
  8. Use proper ventilation and protective equipment when melting lead to cast bullets, sinkers, decoys or other metal items.

No symptoms doesn’t mean no exposure

CDC says that most children and adults who are exposed to lead have no symptoms, and that the only way to tell if you or your child has been exposed is with a blood lead test. Its advice is to contact your health care provider if you think a job or hobby has exposed you or your child. A provider can help you decide whether a blood lead test is needed and recommend what to do next.

For more on children and exposure, see our guide to children and heavy metals and what parents can do.

Make it the routine after every session

For a hobbyist, prevention is mostly routine. Change clothes before getting in the car, wash hobby clothes in their own load, leave shoes at the door and shower after a range session. If you also live in an older home (EPA notes the federal government banned consumer uses of lead-based paint in 1978), there may be a second source of dust. Our guide to lead paint in older homes and how to renovate safely covers that.

What it calls for is consistency: following the routine after every session, before getting in the car.

Sources

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