Chemistry - Toxicity of metallic lead (Pb)

Solution 1:

Metallic lead is very low risk.

Lead compounds are fairly poisonous: they slowly build up in the body and cause many harmful effects. But lead metal is very inert and you would need to do something fairly risky with it to create much likleihood of generating dangerous lead compounds.

Don't eat it, for example. Don't put it in contact with food (especially acidic foods which can solubilise lead). But normal handling should not be a problem.

Lead is so inert that it has been used to pipe clean water supplies to people for most of history (or at least the parts of history where somebody had access to clean water). This is safe unless the water supply is particularly acidic and leaches lead from the pipes.

In short: don't worry about lumps of lead.

Solution 2:

I used to handle lead every day without gloves -- solder spatters, lead shot for casting, handling those cast lead pieces, cutting and installing lead foil for shielding scientific instruments, etc. A few years ago I took a bit of time to evaluate my work area and habits. I was concerned that my habits were getting careless. I decided to clean things up and make an effort to not be so careless. I also had my blood tested, so I something to measure. I went to my doctor and told him my concerns. He sent me to have a blood test for heavy metals. The results came back showing my levels to be quite low (If I recall correctly, they tested specifically for lead and mercury and cadmium, and some others, I think, but don't recall). At any rate, blood levels don't necessarily reflect the total amount of heavy metals carried by the body, but given that the tests were taken when my exposure was at a peak, and given that the results came back so low it seems that I didn't have anything to worry about.

That's just my story. I don't handle lead quite as often now, but I still handle it pretty regularly. I am not sure why you have any concern about the lead you handle. It sounds like you have nothing to worry about.