Medicine: Pistol Shooter’s Peril

Everyone knows that it is dangerous to be in front of a loaded gun. Health authorities in Georgia report that being behind the gun can also be risky. Three De Kalb County police instructors were found during a routine screening to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood—enough to cause brain damage and other serious effects. The three men had something else in common: they taught marksmanship at an indoor range, each firing 200 or more rounds a day. Puzzled doctors checked the airborne lead levels in the range and found that they stood at zero before the shooting started each day. But the readings rose after only 16 minutes of firing to more than 3 mg. per cubic meter of air. This is 20 times the accepted safe limit, and high enough to make continued pistol shooting under such conditions nearly as damaging to the shooter as it is to his target.