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Gloves while reloading

badhabithobbybadhabithobby Member Posts: 216 ✭✭✭
edited July 2008 in Perry Shooter Competition Shooting and Reloading Forum
Does anyone know if wearing a rubber/latex glove while picking up lead bullets will minimize the lead exposure or does the lead penetrate the latex and do no good. After loading 500 rounds the other day in a well ventilated room and washing my hands twice during breaks and again when I was finished I had a massive headache. Not sure if it was contributed to the lead or maybe some other reason. Anyway, would the gloves help or does anyone have another suggestion?
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    perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,390 ✭
    edited November -1
    You do need to be careful when handling Lead but There is no reason that it should give you a Head_Ache I have been reloading lead 45acp bullets 5000-7500 per year for 35+ years and my blood levels are normal. There is a good product "D-LEAD" hand wipes from Esca Tech,inc. www,esca-tech.com that is a hand wipe. I suspect the head ache came from the bullet lube ALOX give me a head-ache . "PRAISE THE HARD-BALL GUN"
    Cheers Karl
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    jonkjonk Member Posts: 10,121
    edited November -1
    I agree. Lead is a solid that does not readily move through the skin. You have to ingest it, breathe vapors or dust, smoke with leaded up fingers, etc. Even then, it takes repeated exposure to cause trouble. My dad has lead poisoning. For years he'd come home and drink a beer out of his pewter beer mug. One day the doc told him he had lead poisoning. He couldn't figure it out. Voila, the beer mug! So much for German antiques. [:D] This took him 10, 15 years and didn't hurt him in the long run as he stopped in time.

    The environmentalist whackos have us so conditioned to think everything is going to kill us... it isn't. Lead is a fairly harmless substance unless the above conditions are met... or if it is pushed towards you at 1000fps. [;)]

    So I'd say your headache could not have been from the lead, unless you have been doing this for years and lick your fingers after every session.... probably just coincidence or something else in the room.
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    rg666rg666 Member Posts: 395 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I use Nitrile gloves not because i'm afraid ill get lead-copper-powder-anything poisoning but to make clean up easier. The Nitrile gloves will protect against most harmful things & can be bought at places like harbor freight for cheap.
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    bgjohnbgjohn Member Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Headache? Perhaps you just needed to take a good poop!
    JM[:D]
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    bgjohnbgjohn Member Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Or maybe you need to check your eyeglasses.
    JM[?]
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    JustCJustC Member Posts: 16,056 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I wear latex gloves to keep from tarnishing my brass and bullets if my hands sweat.
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    longspur riderlongspur rider Member Posts: 2,620 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I wear leather gloves while working with the brass- decapping,sizing, ect. & wear a latex on the hand that handles the lead & keep leather on the hand operating the handle on the press.
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    lapriesterlapriester Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by badhabithobby
    Does anyone know if wearing a rubber/latex glove while picking up lead bullets will minimize the lead exposure or does the lead penetrate the latex and do no good. After loading 500 rounds the other day in a well ventilated room and washing my hands twice during breaks and again when I was finished I had a massive headache. Not sure if it was contributed to the lead or maybe some other reason. Anyway, would the gloves help or does anyone have another suggestion?


    Less beer and better aspirin. Try a good dose of vitamin B after a hard night's drinking.[;)][:D]

    Honestly, I've been reloading for over 40 years, lead shotgun, lead bullets and handled so many I would be brain dead by now if it had seriously affected my system. I've never had a headache that I could even remotely attribute to lead poisoning. I have never worn gloves. Shooting lead ammo is actually more likely to contaminate you than handling lead unless you are licking your fingers to clean the "black stuff off" when you are done or eating finger food without washing your hands. Lead, in a solid form is not absorbed into the skin. It pretty much must be inhaled or injested to do harm and even then it takes years of constant exposure to have dire consequences.

    You are not getting headaches from handling lead bullets.

    Larry[8D]
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    nugget73nugget73 Member Posts: 1 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    It could be from the Nitro in the powder.
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    FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,278 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by JustC
    I wear latex gloves to keep from tarnishing my brass and bullets if my hands sweat.


    Plus- no static electricity.
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    PastaManPastaMan Member Posts: 18 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I use latex gloves all the time in my reloading area...when prepping shells for tumbling, when handling shells after tumbling, and when reloading. Makes it easier for cleanup.

    I also wear a surgical mask and eye protection. If anything, makes me feel protected!!...and I'm not a wannabe doctor...already am one.

    P.S. I haven't contracted AIDS, Hep, or anything else from the reload process yet! [8D]
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