Lead paint/ contamination on old tools/wrought iron

[Mark Emig]

I've seen a couple of comments lately on the "be careful with lead paint on items". If you think you have some of what might be lead paint on old tools/iron that you're cleaning up BE CAREFUL. There is NO safe level of exposure to lead. In other words, the old "a little won't hurt me" is TOTALLY incorrect. Get a lead pain test kit from the hardware store-they're cheap. I am suffering the after effects of lead exposure from many years ago. The neurological after effects (read brain damage/memory issues) are horrible and not to be taken lightly. The effects are PERMANENT and there is NO TREATMENT other than get the lead out of your system-and even then, the brain damage is non-treatable.
So, BE CAREFUL!!!!

[r smith]

Thanks for the reminder. It is good to hear from someone with first hand experience, just sorry it happened to one of our own here.

[Neil Blythin]

I was just talking about this sort of thing the other day with a friend of mine. He is in the junk removal business, and had been called to give a quote on hauling away some asbestos siding.

We got talking about all the 'hazardous' things that people never gave any thought about in the past. I remember having actual lead toy soldiers. My wife remembers her dad having large pieces of lead in the garage that they'd play with, bending and molding it by hand. My friend was talking about how they would break open thermometers when he was a kid, to play with the 'quicksilver' (mercury) inside ... pushing a glob of it around in palm of their hand to see the neat way it moved.

Scary, scary stuff, eh? But as dangerous as all these things have proven to be in their natural state, we have to be doubly careful ... as the hazards associate with them can increase dramatically when we get it hot in a forge!