Best wishes on the coming baby. I am a father, and currently expectant grandfather, and I think that babies are God's gifts to us. But I also think that you are overstating the dangers of lead exposure to your pregnant wife and unborn child from one single range session. The qualification lasts maybe 10-15 minutes, and there are only 50 rounds fired. If there are 8-10 lanes in use, that's 400-500 rounds fired during the qualification. Most commercial indoor ranges are ventilated and filtered—some more than others, admittedly, but in a state with Texas' climate, they all have AC, which means ventilation and filtration. The volume of lead particulate matter from individual rounds isn't that much, so the effect is one of cumulative exposure, not single exposure. To draw an analogy, one cigarette isn't going to cause lung cancer. One
pack of cigarettes isn't going to cause lung cancer. But a steady habit of 10 years just might cause lung cancer.
That isn't to say that there is no risk from exposure, and I certainly acknowledge that the dangers are not just to your wife, but also to the baby, but those risks are easily mitigated. Even this pro-gun-control advocating website offers some easy protective measures for shooting indoors:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/article ... e_8875.cfm
Some of the best ways to prevent lead poisoning and exposing others to lead contamination include:
- If you visit a firing range, wash your hair when you get home to remove lead particles.
- Always wash your hands and face before eating.
- Wear an air filtration mask while spending any time on the firing range.
- Clear you sinuses by blowing your nose after using the firing range. Yoga practitioners often use a neti pot to wash the sinuses with salt water, but it's probably not likely that many people are both yoga practitioners and shooting range customers.
- Change your clothes and shoes so you do not contaminate your home, your office or your car. Wash them separately from your family's clothing.
- Have a regular medical checkup and request that you be checked for lead levels.
- Switch to ammunition that contains lead-free primers -- this is widely available from most makers in many popular calibers.
- Take up archery.
Obviously, the last one is ridiculous, but the first four are easy to follow and make some sense. Lead exposure at a shooting range for a pregnant woman is like wine exposure. Regularly consuming a bottle of wine a day is going to lead to a baby with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_syndrome), but a single glass of wine on a romantic date with your expectant wife is not going to harm your baby. I grew up in a wine-drinking environment. My mother drank a
little bit of wine in all three of her pregnancies. Before meeting and marrying my father, she had survived a war zone in which there was a lot of lead in the air at any given moment—both as particulate matter, and as projectiles—and my two brothers and I turned out fairly normal (despite having been raised in California).
You're right to be cautious and concerned, but I think your concerns can be easily dealt with by wearing a filtration mask (easily obtained) and washing up afterwards (easily done); and if the class goes to an outdoor range, I think the risks of exposure during one brief range visit drop to pretty near zero.
That's just my 2¢.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
My wife was worn out by the time the concert was over. However, the daughter still loves country music today!
