Melted lead WARNING !!!!

[madsenshooter]

Back in the early 60's when I was around 5, there was a family next door that had over 20 kids. With that many in the family, naturally they were poor. One day a couple of them that were a few years older than me called me between a couple of houses. They were eating paint chips off the side of house! "Try it", they said. "Tastes like potato chips". I did, and it wasn't my flavor. The now common potato chip was at that time a luxury item that they seldom got to partake of. Closest thing they probably got was the thin slices of fried taters that came with the daily beans. In time, one of those kids wound up with a plastic throat. Whether or not eating paint chips as a kid was the cause of that, I can't say.

[Matt Anthony]

If I remember correctly, water expands something like 1200 times when turning to steam. That is a lot of expansion! Lead in the evironment? Did you know that the lake bottom off Camp Perry has at least 8 feet of lead built up over the years and the EPA water tests couldn't detect any lead in the water. Congress declared the waters off Camp Perry to be a Nation Strategic Minerals Reserve to prevent the EPA from shutting down the ranges and forcing the Army to clean out the lead!

Is there an article one could search for that states that there is 8 ft. of lead at the bottom of the lake. That is incredible!

[madsenshooter]

Hmm, missed the tidbit you quoted Matt, I had heard that the area behind the ranges is dredged from time to time. Where that would be dumped I don't know. Speaking of lead tidbits: https://archive.org/stream/NationalL...ge/n0/mode/2up In its elemental form it is poorly absorbed if ingested, it doesn't become a problem unless it's in an organic form, like the tetraethyl. Here's some more interesting tidbits: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=7&po=4 Says lead doesn't conduct electricity! Then how does the electricity from my battery get to the starter of my car? Also says both inorganic and organic forms were used in gasoline. Govt misinformation for you.

[John Sukey]

Still have a small brown burn spot on one leg from casting lead many years ago

[psteinmayer]

Here's some more interesting tidbits: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=7&po=4 Says lead doesn't conduct electricity! Then how does the electricity from my battery get to the starter of my car?

Funny, the line about conducting electricity immediately follows the word Solder.... Why is lead used as solder for electrical connections if it doesn't conduct? In fact, not only are automotive battery terminals made of lead, so are the plates inside! LOL Hogwash!!!

[holdover]

as I under stand the Doe Run shutdown it started back in 2008... Per NRA

http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2013/10/end-of-an-era-last-us-lead-smelter-to-close-in-december.aspx

"Doe Run made significant efforts to reduce lead emissions from the smelter, but in 2008 the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead that were 10 times tighter than the previous standard. Given the new lead air quality standard, Doe Run made the decision to close the Herculaneum smelter."

can't blame this one on the POS that lives in the big white house

[older than dirt]

as I under stand the Doe Run shutdown it started back in 2008... Per NRA

http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2013/10/end-of-an-era-last-us-lead-smelter-to-close-in-december.aspx

"Doe Run made significant efforts to reduce lead emissions from the smelter, but in 2008 the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead that were 10 times tighter than the previous standard. Given the new lead air quality standard, Doe Run made the decision to close the Herculaneum smelter."

can't blame this one on the POS that lives in the big white house

Yes you can blame him. He could do one of his "Dickatater Wana-Be" acts & over ride the EPA with pen & paper for an execrative order.

[Dolt]

Don't mix lead with alcohol

A pitcher of Margaritas and a pot full of molten lead definitely can lead to burned feet and ruined clothing.......I make all of the mistakes so you guys don't have to.

[da gimp]

Doe runs emmissions were actually better than either Mo.'s DNR requirements or the US EPA standards.... what was killing them was the fact that the entire area down there was heavily contaminated in the preceding 100 years or so........... and these contaminate all te samples being drawn now,............. Doe Run can't win the long term legal wars against a slew of gov't lawyers & regulators that want to be able to brag that they shut Doe Run down...............

[RED]

lead is totally misunderstood...

The politicians and the EPA does not have a clue.

Here in MO we have a $.50 tax on every lead/acid battery sold. The stated purpose of the tax is it is supposed to compensate the State for all the expense it has incurred in cleaning up discarded car batteries. That is bald faced lie. Ninety seven percent of those batteries are made from recycled lead... nobody throws away lead anymore.

As far as cleaning up "dump sites" there are people out there that would gladly do it for free. Oh, that lake that has eight feet of leadon it's bottom? I guarantee you there are lots of companies that would pay the Government big bucks to have that contract!

BTW, as of today the price of lead on the London Metal Exchange is jost over $1,900/ton. That means recyclers will be paying $.25 - $.30
/lb. for junk batteries. The average car battery weighs 33lbs. and is worth $7.50 - $10.00. How many people dump $10 bills into the garbage?

[Sportsdad60]

Reminds me of a guy in 1979 that started a fire while deburring magnesium aircraft parts on a wheel at the company I work for (Boeing)
He got a nice big pile of magnesium dust built up and somehow managed to ignite it. So what does he do? Threw water on it.

That was some fun excitement!

[PhillipM]

The lead is gone now from gasoline but it still can contain hazardous chemicals, the main one being benzene. Gasoline is so thin it penetrates the skin easily as well. Back in my younger days I worked on my cars quite often and got my hands plenty greasy. I used to soak them in what was convenient which was always gasoline. Times have changed.

As a child in the 70's the grownups called gasoline either red or white. I asked dad the difference and he said put red in the car and use wHite to wash parts!

Matt, IIRC, you have it backwards. The lead smelter that shut down processed virgin lead. There are plenty of smelters reclaiming car batteries and such. I saw some peculiar looking lead batteries at a scrap yard that were cell phone tower back up batteries. The case was lead instead of plastic. I almost bought on for the novelty.

[PhillipM]

Reminds me of a guy in 1979 that started a fire while deburring magnesium aircraft parts on a wheel at the company I work for (Boeing)
He got a nice big pile of magnesium dust built up and somehow managed to ignite it. So what does he do? Threw water on it.

That was some fun excitement!

Class D fires are fun!

[dave]

I have not read all the posts, so excuse if this has been mentioned. Every safety instruction I ever read said NEVER add more lead to a melted pot. For the very reason of what happened to poster. Get it all in there, melted at once so any moisture or anything else is heated gradually!

[Merc]

Think about it. Heating something cold causes moisture from condensation to form. Single pane windows in winter is a great example.

The weights probably were dry but placing a cold piece of lead into a pot of molten lead can cause moisture from condensation to form and result in a violent steam explosion.

It's safer to allow the molten lead to cool and harden, add more lead and reheat. This was a hard lesson learned by many, I'm sure. Glad you weren't injured.