[MSUleadpoison]

Involved in racecar set-up? Did you know that you risk having lead poisoning because of welding, lead ballast installation and lead fuels used in racing??? Michigan State University Occupational Health has an on going lead project and are willing to offer free assistance to help teams avoid lead poisoning and elevated blood lead levels.

We are looking for teams willing to demonstrate their current racecar set-up procedure for evaluation of lead exposure by Dr. Ken Rosenman, MD and his staff. This is an educational effort only; no regulatory or penalizing actions will be incurred. If you would like to learn more or would be willing to allow us an on site visit, please contact us at: rosenman@msu.edu or our toll free number 800-446-7805

[Mopar93]

Nobody can get lead poisoning from handling their lead ballast weights. I've also never heard of anyone who has eaten any of their weights, or melted them and drank them.

Handling the weights with our hands is perfectly safe. Plus, according to the rulebook, the ballast must be painted. This adds further protection by sealing up the outside surface of the weight.

As for welding, no lead is used in the process of welding steel. Therefore, no lead poisoning will occur when we weld on our race cars.

I would sincerely hope that research such as this would never result in the banning of lead for use as ballast in a race car.

This research seems like a waste of time to me.

-Maurice

[MSUleadpoison]

People have become sick with elevated blood lead levels from preparing lead ballast. This can happen when melting lead, boring or machining it in anyway. Exposure can come directly from breathing in the fumes or eating or smoking cigarettes before washing your hands after melting or machining lead. Is the ballast ALWAYS painted???

We are in no way interested in banning the use of lead for ballast, rather demonstrating the safe practices that keep you and your team healthy when around lead. Also informing everyone of the availability of testing for blood lead levels.

[Mopar93]

[todd metz sr.]

I agree Maurice,
MSU needs to save A LOT of money, my daughter goes there and they are charging an outragous amount of money for tuition.

Seems funny to me that the person that wants to protect and educate us from/about this lead issue is not even sharing their idenity with us. Hiding ( so to speak ) behind a fake user name and no signature.

You know that we could get attacked by a mad cow from the dairy farm that is by the track at Springport. Mad cow disease is a very serious disease. Since I was a dairy farmer for the first 40+ years of my life, I feel that maybee we should tell the farmers around the tracks that on race days they need to sedate their cows so they will be happy and then we will not need to worry about attacks by mad cows.

Now that really seems silly to me, just like the thought of tuition money being spent to do a study of something like this that is going to give the results that ARE already known.

One would think that children that put lead pencils into their mouths would be at a much higher risk than a racer that uses lead for weight in their car.

Oh no, I think that I might have just found a way for tuition to go up again... Here comes a study about taking the lead out of pencils

I can not believe the lenghts that some go to to make this world Idiot proof. I feel lucky that people are trying to tell me how to protect me from myself.......

Todd ( Yogi ) Metz Sr.

[lansingsportsrage.com]

Its not exactly hiding when you include your email address and phone number.

That being said.. here is a good article on the fallacy of lead poisoning:

http://www.pauldavidson.net/2006/09/24/lead-poisoning-is-a-total-fallacy/

[Mopar93]

Pencils are rather safe. The product that is in the middle of the wood is not really lead, it's graphite. It also makes a good lubricant for small low speed shafts.

[todd metz sr.]

Lansingsportsrage.com Says ;
Its not exactly hiding when you include your email address and phone number.

I agree MR. Sportsrage ( aka.. Patrick ) I just get a little frustrated when people have strong opionions but are not willing to sign their name to them. When we know who they are or can contact them it is not a problem...

Maurice,
You are right again, this is more than likely a student doing a paper, hopefully a student and not a professor being paid to do a study.

I am glad you was able to kill the pencil study so my daughters tuition will not go up by 35% next semester, only 33%.........

Do you think we should talk with the dairy farmers, or did you handle that last year?????? I am sure that they would get a good laugh, I mean, they would be very interested in someone from the " CITY " telling them about the mad cow issue

Yogi

[Mopar93]

Russ figured out that the cows were not a problem, a long time ago. He told me that when he first built the speedway, one of the concerns would be the cows across the street. Russ said he watched the cows the first time some cars took to the track. They all wandered over to the fence out of curiosity and stood there watching and listening.

After awhile, they all wandered back to their field and laid down, doing whatever it is they do, normally. From then on, they never paid attention to the race cars.

There, another study performed. No government grant needed, either.

MSU should use this message board for research.

-Maurice

[MSUleadpoison]

I guess it is time for the professor to get directly involved. We had an individual with elevated lead levels from working with lead ballast in race cars. We keep track of lead poisoning in the state and had not had a previous case like this. The reason we popped up in this forum is it was suggested that 1) this a way to let people involved with race cars know that there is a potential problem if in working with lead ballast you use heat or do machining on the ballast and 2) for us to get a better idea of what is actually done with lead ballasts and how widespread an issue this is.

Lead is an important health issue. Besides the acute symptoms associated with acute lead poisoning , chronic exposure can lead to high blood pressure, kidney disease and decrease in neurological function and I make no apologies for spending time or being concerned about it use. The questions we have : Is how often is lead ballast heated or machined? When the work is done where is it done? Would anyone allow us to view the work being done so we would have a better understanding of what is being done? Has anyone else had a blood lead level done who has worked on lead ballast?

Thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can provide on this issue

Here is my contact info

Kenneth Rosenman, M.D., FACPM, FACE
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Michigan State University
117 West Fee
East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1315
517 353 1846

[Mopar93]

Dr. Rosenman,

Thanks for popping in here personally.

[Big Ed]

Lead poisoning is not a fallacy, and I can produce a few families that would set everyone here straight on it too. On top of being a Real Estate Appraiser, I am also a State Licensed Lead Inspector, well, I let the license lapse because of lack of work, and the price of the equipment to do the job. I have seen it with my own eyes. A child rendered almost helpless because of the effects. I'll tell you what, all you have to do is see ONE family effected by lead poisoning to realize just what a problem it can be.

Almost every case I have been involved with, the damage was done by lead based paint. The child actually ate chips of it (highly addictive once you start, and has a sweet taste), or it came from the dust, which is the most common. Lead based paint was used in some of your older houses (Pre 1978), and when a family purchases an older house, there are usually repairs to make. The adults do not take the precautions when doing the work, like wet sanding instead of dry, and the lead dust is taken in by the child, and this is where the child becomes poisoned.

While lead poisoning usually effects children (under 6) more than adults, if exposed to it enough, an adult can also suffer from lead poisoning also.

The good Professor is just trying to bring your attention to a problem that has been around us since the 1700's. And whether you want to believe it or not, it still is infecting many of our youth to this very day. And the sadest part of it, most of the youth effected is in the poorer sector of our communities, and don't even know what it is, or how. Very sad, especially when you've seen it with your own eyes.

Ok, enough from me.

[Mopar93]

Hi Ed,

You spoke primarily about older homes containing older paints with lead in it. What's your take on handling solid chunks of raw lead, drilling it, and cutting it with a saw? What are the dangers and how would they be any different than working with any other types of raw metal.

We never hear of anyone grinding their ballast or sanding it, so there is little chance of fine particles being sent into the air to be inhaled.

What would happen if I swallowed a pellet used in pellet guns? Would I get lead poisoning or would the entire pellet just end up coming out the other end in a day or two?

Besides the actual wound, what happens when someone gets shot by a bullet from a gun? Do they get lead poisoning from it? It seems that would be the most extreme case of having contact with the raw material as compared to simply picking it up with our hands.

How can fishermen safely handle their sinkers?

I DO agree with you on the dangers of breathing in the dust from sanding paints containing lead, but I'm not convinced there is any danger in handling the raw product. While sanding paint, there may also be other dangers resulting from inhaling the dust, besides just lead.

-Maurice

[lansingsportsrage.com]

For sure breathing fumes from lead while melting is very bad..

[Mopar93]

Patrick, when I was making the ballast weights for the K-Car back in 04, I don't recall any unpleasant fumes while melting the lead. As I stated previously, I only heated the lead enough to cause it to melt. Less than 400 degress does the trick. It takes a lot higher temperature than that to cause any vapors or to turn it to a gas.

I don't believe the method I used was harmful at all.

But then again, I had the fool idea of operating a race track last year. Is it possible there's some brain damage there that I'm not aware of?

-Maurice