Reloading with a pregnant lady in the house

W

windy

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
3   0   0
Is it safe to reload while the misses is pregnant? Are there too many bad chemicals in the powders or burnt up primers? I know keeping a clean work station is important and to store powders in a safe place. This is our first kid so I am kinda paranoid.
Thanks
 
Best answer is to wait until after baby comes. Lead is your primary concern. But if you do, (it can be safe) Use a workstation nowhere near anything she will touch or otherwise go near. Use disposable gloves and watch everything you touch. Hepa filters if tumbling brass. Wash everything when done.
 
probably be fine in a separate room that is sealed off from the rest of the house. of course you must wash your hands and arms really good after handling lead and chems anyways(I would just shower). If you where really worried you could seal off the room and make a lamar flow hood with a bonafide hepa filter for about 500. It will filter 99.981 percent of air borne particles including radioactive waste and even some bacteria and single celled organisms.

It sucks are in and purifies the air, if you work in front of it the air is clean as you can get. They usually come in a 2 foot by 2 foot filter. you could even use it to properly clean out the room to a medical grade sterile area. leave in the room for an hour clean repeat. works great for allergens in the air as well. medical testing labs and sterile environments use them all the time.

I am looking to get into reloading so i don't know all the chems or steps so i am just using some common sense here don't take my medical advice to heart as i am not a doctor and maybe that is whom you should consult. if anything a hepa filter couldn't hurt and would probably make you look proactive to your baby moms.
 
if it was my unborn child, i would find something else to occupy my time till the baby is born.
 
If you absolutely must reload for the duration, I would recommend staying away from tumbling. I'm suspicious of tumblers to begin with, though.
 
Gatehouse said:
How on earth would reloading affect a pregnant woman? She isn't eating your walnut shells or anything??
Click to expand...

Exactly, if you are really worried don't let her do your reloading, washing your hands is good enough for you and you should already be doing that anyway after reloading.
 
When I am at work next week I will try to find our fact sheets for the contaminants in fired cartridge cases. I wouldn't recommend reloading in your case. When we sort brass we have to wear disposable coveralls, face masks, and gloves. None of our outer wear is allowed to leave the work area due to lead and other contaminants. There is a warning about exposure of pregnant women and newborns. We deal with thousands of cartridge cases at a time, but you run the same risk of exposure in smaller doses if you are using fired brass.
 
Keep her away from cell phones microwaves computers HD tv's airplanes electrical surge protectors and sunlight as well. Seriously reloading will not harm her or the infant unless you are feeding her large amounts of lead and smothering her in used tumbler media day after day
 
A lot of people will say yes, a lot of people will say no..

I say WHY risk it? I don't think anyone can conclusively say otherwise - one way or another.

You have the rest of your life to reload. Wait it out.
 
When I started reloading I used a small room in the basement.
I would have a batch of brass in the vibratory tumbler at any given time.
I used the RCBS tumbler with the solid cover yet
After a few days there was a fine coating of walnut dust covering everything in the room.

I then switched to wet tumbling where all the contaminants are trapped in the water and dumped down a sink.
I no longer have a fine dust of walnut laced with lead compound floating around.

It is entirely your and your wife's decision if you should reload while she's pregnant but I would definitely switch to wet tumbling since you will soon have a toddler scampering about the house.

For those who poo poo about the potential risks all I can say is that when I was a kid we drove in the front seat of the car between mom and dad without seatbelts but we wouldn't dare try this today.
I didn't die but there are other kids that weren't so lucky.
So don't take unnecessary risks when there are safer alternatives out there.

Congratulations.
 
Last edited:
f:P: I`m in the put her in bubble wrap for protection camp. Unless your loading in the kitchen and on the table no problems. I reloaded in the house all through 3 kids being born and raised, SWMBO was shooting at the time as well and mine turned out fine. No bloody wonder the nanny state people are winning with all the protectionest ideas running rampant.
 
This must be your first kid. Don't worry about it, wash up when done I reloaded throughout my wife's pregnancies and my two boys are just fine. This is a funny one though. Lmao..
 
I reloaded the whole time my wife was pregnant, and just then....nothing happened.

The real problem is lead....it is far more dangerous than any chemical in the primers or powders. If you load lead, wash your hands frequently. I also wash my hands with D-Lead soap when I am done in my gun room.
 
dead meat said:
f:P: I`m in the put her in bubble wrap for protection camp. Unless your loading in the kitchen and on the table no problems. I reloaded in the house all through 3 kids being born and raised, SWMBO was shooting at the time as well and mine turned out fine. No bloody wonder the nanny state people are winning with all the protectionest ideas running rampant.
Click to expand...

I think the OP would be better off selling off all his dangerous hobby's and taking up knitting.
The entire family would benefit that way!
 
Don't you dare let her in a car! Do you know how many people die in cars every day!!??


;)

The tumbler is probably the 'worst' issue just because of the dust. Put it in the garage or something but other than that, unless she is sucking on used primers or cleaning the cases with her mouth, it will be fine.

I then switched to wet tumbling where all the contaminants are trapped in the water and dumped down a sink.
Click to expand...

You dumped contaminants down the sink?? Does this mean I can start dumping used motor oil down the sink??
 
First kid - that's a significant milestone and probably one he!! of a lot more important to you in the long run than reloading.

Theoretical dangers from chemical vapours from propellent and such are essentially non-existant unless she's stuffed her pillow with the stuff. They can be safely ignored.

Danger from lead (and other heavy metals) is less theoretical. The human body needs zinc, sodium, carbon, oxygen and a lot of other things - but we need not one single atom of lead. Basically, the less lead in us, the better. There are theoretical tolerable limits on lead exposure and that's good, but what they mean is that, for most people, under normal situations, this amount of lead won't do enough harm to be noticed. Now compare that to your stituation, involving a woman you love and your first-born kid. Maybe the theoretical doses are still applicable, maybe you want to play it completely safe. I certainly wouldn't fault you for being overly cautious. It's like drinking; most women can probably have the odd glass of wine when pregnant without risking any fetal damage, but many if not most choose not to risk it.

Personally, unless I was shooting a lot, I'd think it would be enough to just minimize an already low risk - stop dry tumbling, vacuum a lot using HEPA filters, wash hands and clothes a lot, close off the return or cold air duct for your reloading room and so forth. BUT - it's your kid-to-be and anybody calling you a twit for being concerned probably reproduces by binary fission. The only people with a right to call it are your and your wife.

Oh, BTW, congratualtions, Dad! There's no feeling in the world like holding your first-born in your arms. Good luck to you three.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom