Children lead exposure in JrROTC Shooting Programs.

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Just another blow to teaching about guns.
New York Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal has introduced Assembly Bill A10428 to prohibit marksmanship programs in New York state public schools. Rosenthal frames the legislation by writing, "To create a true gun-free school zone we cannot allow students to possess and discharge firearms on school property." The measure has riled 2nd Amendment enthusiasts while liberals generally see it as an overdue, common-sense measure. No one, however, has addressed the potential for lead contamination associated with the military's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Program's (JROTC) Marksmanship Program.

The air gun rifles used in 1,871 high schools with JROTC marksmanship programs across the country discharge lead at the muzzle end of the firing line. Every pellet being fired down the barrel scrapes out the deposits from the pellets that went before. Lead fragments fill the air and also settle on the floor by the target.

Let's examine a New York school with an Army JROTC Marksmanship program that appears to be flouting lead regulations and endangering the health of its students.

Students at the Leadership Academy for Young Men in Rochester, NY use the boiler room of the High School to shoot their rifles. This video of cadets firing their weapons and checking their targets shows a general disregard for regulations designed to protect children from lead contamination.

This must-watch video depicts several violations regarding lead safety standards set by the Civilian Marksmanship Program in its 24-page pamphlet, Guide to Lead Management for Air Gun Shooting:

It is obvious there are no designated lanes on either side of the range for officials to check the targets. (CMP Guide – page 8 – "Personnel movements forward of the firing line should be reduced and restricted to marked lanes on either side of the firing points.")

According to the CMP's Guide to Lead Management, "If shooters do not move past the firing line to go downrange except as authorized, and if personnel who go downrange follow the guidelines.. there is no immediate health hazard to shooters or other persons who remain behind the firing line."

This is obviously not happening in Rochester where students shoot their weapons and cross the firing line. The CMP's lead guide calls for target changers to put on disposable shoe covers before walking over lead residues in front of the targets. The target changer is instructed to remove the shoe covers before re-entering the school building. The target changer should put on shoe covers. None of that is happening in Rochester. The kids walk through the lead deposits on the floor at the firing line on their way to the target line with heavy concentrations of lead on the floor. Then they track it through their school.

Fairfax County, Virginia had the same problem. The district tested the schools with air gun rifle ranges and found them to present a threat to public health. The schools were cleaned and lead ammunition was banned.

The CMP's Guide to Lead Management refers to the firing line 32 times. It makes it very clear there are concentrations of dangerous lead contaminants that children can pick up and carry outside of the shooting range. At the Leadership Academy in Rochester, students used their backpacks to balance the muzzle end of their rifles. Their backpacks were placed over the firing line, acting as mops collecting lead particulates. The poisonous material is carried home by students.

To clean up the deposits of lead at the firing line and target area the CMP advises, "a periodic wet mopping with a solution of water and tri-sodium phosphate" (TSP).

In 2012, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development advised that tri-sodium phosphate should be avoided when cleaning up the lead because it is deadly to the environment and no better than many other less harmful cleaning agents. New York has banned phosphates in detergents since 2010.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program directs students to wash their hands with soap and water after shooting. Since 2011 the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been warning the public that washing hands with soap and water is not completely effective in removing lead from the surface of the skin.

Some states have picked up on this in their public health advisories to shooters. For instance, Illinois tells shooters, "Use an effective lead removal product; standard soap and water is not enough to remove lead residues from your skin."

The New York State Department of Health just tells shooters to wash their face and hands after shooting.

This is a big deal because the CDC says there is no acceptable amount of lead exposure for children.

Regular maintenance of high school firing ranges is a complex undertaking that requires strict adherence to many pages of detailed procedures. We don't know how closely the JROTC instructors or the custodial staff in the state's schools follow the "Guidelines for Airgun Range Design, Cleaning and Maintenance," a section of the Guide to Lead Management.
http://buzzflash.com/commentary/childre ... g-programs

The article goes on about the science of lead exposure.

I think back to my days in Jr ROTC 1967-70. The Armory was under the auditorium at the high school built in the mid 1930s by the WPA. Our rifle range was a 50 foot range concrete walls and ceiling. They back stop was a large thick piece of steel at a 45 degree angle so any round that hit it was deflected into a dirt pile at the bottom. There was this huge exhaust fan that when turned on could suck the paint off walls. All was built when the high school was done. We didn’t shoot air rifles, we shot Remmington 40X target rifles in 22LR. I was on the rifle team and during the completion season we shot 50 rounds every morning before school. This was with 6 lanes shooting. Also after instructions the rest of the Cadets would have to qualify with the rifles and that was around 100 cadets. We didn’t even think about lead contamination at that time.

Some of the cadets later did have lead problems, due to exposure not in high school but right after graduation and being sent to Southeast Asia courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Solution to the lead problem today quit using air riles and use real rifles with jacketed 22 LR.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Children lead exposure in JrROTC Shooting Programs.

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I recently dusted off my pellet rifle and I've been shooting it in my garage. I was worried about spreading lead residue over everything so I've been buying lead-free pellets -- they are a bit more expensive than lead pellets but not ridiculously so. It's a ton of fun and worth the minimal extra cost for peace of mind.

Anyway, using lead-free pellets would end the controversy (unless the controversy isn't about lead of course).

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