I can weigh in on this. Reloading in general is no different than soldering in that both require a learned level of skill and both require developing good work habits. Thinking back I likely began both a few years ago, well OK maybe pushing 60 years ago but here nor there. Using lead solder and loading lead bullets it helps to have and use good sanitary habits which means washing ones hands.

Below are a few bullets.
View attachment 148511

The bullets on the left have a copper jacket around a lead core, the bullets on the right are plain lead bullets. Since the bullets on the left have the lead contained in their jackets so when handling them lead exposure is minimal. So how about when those bullets leave a barrel?

A good friend of mine was a police department range officer. During routine blood work on a routine doctor visit his blood showed elevated lead levels. The range his department shot at had poor ventilation. All shooting ranges are required to have adequate ventilation which means large working air handlers. The problem with indoor ranges is during the winter seasons where moving smoke filled air out means moving heated air inside and heat cost money. Brief exposure is not an issue but my friend, being a range officer, had daily extended exposure. A good rule here is if walking into an indoor range firing line you are in a cloud of smoke avoid breathing. OK, better put find a better range. Reloaders are exposed to lead during the reloading process in the same manner a person working an electronic assembly soldering assembly line were. Both require adequate ventilation.

Reloaders also face another problem with lead in cleaning their brass cases and depriming their cases. With the exception of the new lead free primers the common primers used in loading contain Lead styphnate and when cleaning brass cases the lead can be released in the form of dust. Like handling lead be it solder or bullets the effects can be eliminated using good work habits. Cleanliness is important and common sense should prevail.

The only people I know of, be it shooting or working a wave solder assembly line who ever had issues were those with high exposure in poor working environments. Yes, as a child I may have ingested some lead paint chips gnawing on a windowsill while teething.

Ron

AFAIK: its mostly about stopping power. A lead round spreads on impact and expends a fair bit of energy on blunt force trauma. A cuprous alloy round tends to through & through and may not even disable the victim. Copper jackets make sure the lead core penetrates before spreading - and the fragments make a pretty bad mess when the jacket breaks up.

 

Well, look what just popped up a few minutes ago...
https://science.slashdot.org/story/...ds-of-adults-every-year-in-the-us-study-finds

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...e-deadly-than-we-thought-brexit-bring-it-back

 

Two links to the same opinion piece and a non-working link to Lancet do not data make. Please provide a working link to the Lancet reference.

Edit: Here's a working link: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30043-4/fulltext

Edit #2:
And here's the link to the original paper: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30025-2/fulltext

 

Two links to the same opinion piece and a non-working link to Lancet do not data make. Please provide a working link to the Lancet reference.

Edit: Here's a working link: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30043-4/fulltext

I realize the links eventually point to the same thing but I thought people would like to see where I got the original from, that is slashdot.org.
And the links work for me.
Still, it is an interesting comment on the subject and I was not hunting for it, this just showed up amid the other stories. Slashdot is just one of the sites I look at each day. It has many interesting items on it.

 

Lanphear's paper (See: edit #2, post #43) is heavy reading. It will take me awhile to read it thoroughly (not today). I am particularly interested in how other confounding variables (e.g., sex, age, diabetes, smoking) were sorted out. The discussion suggests that a mechanism based on "oxidative stress" may be in play. Measurable changes in albumin or other proteins are often used as markers for such stress, yet the study did not measure any of them. (Albumin cobalt binding is currently one such test, but there are other tests for protein changes as a result of oxidative stress. Albumin is a convenient target. Copper, iron, cobalt, and transferrin are not mentioned and have importance in oxidative stress.)

From a quick scan of the paper, this sentence from the discussion stood out:

In a randomised controlled trial of patients who had had a myocardial infarction, chelation with EDTA and multivitamin therapy led to an 18% reduction in cardiovascular events; patients with diabetes in the trial had a 34% reduction in cardiovascular events.

I am not about to take EDTA, but I do take multivitamins occasionally.

John