only in our gov't

[.270]

read this. shows ya that transplanted californy buzzards have a lot more say than poor black kids, about how they get took care of. this article is almost funny. if a buzzard eats guts and gets sick, they take away bullets and pass all kindsa legislation to fix it, even tho it sure don't look like they're right about it. but if it's poor black kids, they dump crap in your yard? why not clean the lead up and make the place safe? tear down the houses and build some new ones? instead we give em more food so they won't "eat the paint". and why do folks assume that kids eat paint? any of you ever eat paint? i was pretty poor growin' up and i never remember my mom makin' paint samwiches or ever bein' hungry enough to eat flaked off paint. some o' you guys act like maybe ya did tho. what's it taste like? and don't say chicken. anyway, read how they take care o' poor kids with lead in their yards. says this puts em at "less risk". why not elminate the risk? ya know why? somebody has some crap they wanna sell. this is just great. Lark.

 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SLU...mp;SECTION=HOME

[Outdoor Writer]

Kinda coincidental you posted this. Just last week, I finished an assignment for the National Shooting Sports Foundation's Range Report magazine. It was about an indoor rifle range in Delta Juntion, AK. Rather than recap it, the actual text is below. Especially note the bold-faced type, then maybe you can also wonder why folks feed their kids shoes. -TONY

 

GET THE LEAD OUT

 

When the adage "get the lead out" became popular during the 1930s, it was a way to tell someone to hurry or get moving. More recently, the saying took on a literal translation when potentially dangerous lead levels showed up at an indoor shooting range in Delta Junction, Alaska.

 

The smallbore range, operated by the 125-member Delta Sportsman's Association (DSA), serves as the venue for the high school's rifle team and the Delta Deadeyes -- a shooting club for youngsters below high-school age.

DSA president and rifle team coach Mike Bender said they accidentally discovered the lead problem when a routine test in the spring of 2007 showed elevated levels of lead in a 1-year-old child's blood.

 

Although well below the danger standard set by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the work place, the infant's higher-than-normal lead level became a concern. Finding the cause took some detective work, however.

 

"It just so happens that the child's dad was a volunteer worker at our range and often cleaned the floor after a shooting session. After eliminating many possibilities, they concluded the lead problem was related to the child's habit of chewing his dad's shoes," Bender said.

 

Subsequent blood tests for the father and a teenage son who shoots on the high school team also revealed above-average lead contamination in their systems. That prompted further testing of all those involved in activities at the DSA range. Nearly everyone, including Bender's teenage son Ryan, showed elevated lead levels.

 

"Right then we knew we had a problem that needed immediate attention if we wanted to continue operating the range," Bender said.

 

With all the recent recalls of consumer products, especially toys with lead paint on them, the dangers of lead poisoning has garnered plenty of media attention, thus making the public more aware of the possible health problems that include anemia, nervous system dysfunction, kidney problems, hypertension and infertility. For youngsters, even low lead levels can cause neurological damage leading to learning disabilities and short attention spans.

 

The lead bullets and primer compounds used at an improperly managed indoor range provides the potential for someone to either inhale lead from the air or to ingest it accidentally after handling firearms and other lead-covered items and then eating, smoking or drinking before washing one’s hands. And that lead will eventually work its way into a person's blood stream.

 

The National Association of Shooting Ranges (NASR) has been at the forefront of tackling the lead contamination issue for a long time. In 1991, NASR, OSHA and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI) established an alliance to promote safe and healthful working conditions for workers in target shooting facilities.

 

NASR executive director Rick Patterson feels the lead danger presented by an indoor range is real but is easily prevented using proper management techniques as outlined in the NASR booklet, Airborne Lead Management & OSHA Compliance for Indoor Shooting Ranges.

 

"We have worked with OSHA not only to develop proper management practices but to also educate range operators," Patterson said. "We encourage all ranges to examine their practices and address the key issues of proper ventilation and maintenance methods to avoid elevated lead levels. Our publication outlines all this and is available to any range for the asking."

 

The DSA took quick action, finding several items that likely contributed to the high lead levels.

 

"The first thing we did was install a retractable target system so shooters no longer had to walk downrange to change their targets. We also stopped the kids from sweeping the floor, which was a major cause of the lead dust getting into the air. They probably inhaled plenty of it, too. But even though adults took over the sweeping duty, our main goal was to eliminate it altogether. So my wife wrote up a grant request to the Friends of the NRA. They gave us $4,600, and we immediately looked at solving the floor-sweeping situation," Bender said.

 

To that end, the club purchased a sophisticated Micromatic 14E Scrubber from a firm in Minneapolis, Minn. The $2,200, walk-behind machine puts down a metal-cutting cleaning solution, scrubs the floor with a rotary brush and immediately sucks up the dirt-laden liquid.

 

"I first used one of the scrubbing machines at the University of Alaska's range in Fairbanks. So I already knew it would be a good solution for us. It picks up everything as it goes along, and by the time the operator puts his feet down behind the scrubber, the floor is almost dry," Bender said.

 

An environmental assessment at the range in Oct. 2007 confirmed the scrubber was doing its job.

 

"When they checked the air quality, the parts per million of lead to air was well below the federal guidelines for a residential house. That's significant, considering the circumstances and amount of lead used at an indoor shooting range compared to a home," Bender said.

 

Another improvement took the form of personal hygiene habits and the products used. Everyone who uses the range must wash their hands before leaving with UniqueTek's D-Lead® Hand Soap. As the name implies, the special cleaning agent actually provides for the safe and complete removal of lead and other heavy metals.

 

Bender's club also has several improvements either in progress or planned for the future.

 

The Delta Junction city council awarded a $40,000 grant to DSA for upgrades to the rifle range's ventilation system. So far, part of that grant has gone to installing two industrial exhaust fans downrange near the targets to help remove dust-laden air during shooting sessions.

 

"In addition to better insulation, we installed a heater that brings fresh air to the uprange side, and this summer we're putting in an industrial size heat-recovery ventilator so we don't have to throw so much money out into Alaska's cold," Bender said.

 

The DSA members think their effort is well worth it. Although the high-school rifle team consists of only nine teens, three of them -- Ryan Dunham Bender, Amanda Fisher and Hun Tak -- competed at the USA Shooting's National Junior Olympic Rifle Championships in Colorado Springs in April.

 

As Bender put it, "That's a pretty good representation from a town with a population of only 800."

[az4life]

LOL... Lark, you always got a "real" take on things... You oughta go on that blue collar comedy tour..

 

Paint Samwiches were not in my sack lunches either that I can recall. When I was a young un, I do remember people tellin me to "get the lead out" so maybe they knew about it and were keepin me safe all along.

[.270]

hey, i'm dead serious. the gov't worries more about buzzards than it does poor black kids. i've had to deal with lead and asbestos abatement for years. per the gov't, 6 inches of clean soil is all it takes to make a lead contaminated area into a safe area. asbestos is one of the most stable, sterile things on the planet. just don't make it into a powder where it gets airborn. you can cover it with any one of dozens of materials, and it is safe, even per the gov't. but they want to dump human crap in these kids yards to make the lead safe?!?!? why not just clean it up? i'll tell ya why, because somebody has a buncha human crap mixed with other junk they got the gov't to buy and get em to believe it will fix the problem. you think they'd let em come up with that kind of fix to cure the condors? i don't think so. the irony here is so rich it's disgusting. Lark.