Researching about the toxicity of lead in scuba diving

[Andres Cuevas]

Hi to everybody!!

I've been looking around this forum from some time but I just registered and this is my first post.

I'm researching about the toxicity of lead in scuba diving. But I've been unable to find information and for that reason I created a blog about the subject.

toxic-lead-scuba.blogspot.com

Please feel free to comment here or in the blog itself, I'm just looking for answers.

Have fun!!!
Andres.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Are you referring to lead in the water and it's contact time with divers or are you talking about lead that divers use as a ballast system?

MG

 

[Cave Diver]

I'm researching about the toxicity of lead in scuba diving. But I've been unable to find information and for that reason I created a blog about the subject.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...38653-question-about-weights-used-diving.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/diving-medicine/230709-lead-poisoning-through-skin-contact.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ge...ions/213371-soft-weight-can-cause-cancer.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...t-systems/272650-making-your-own-weights.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/making-your-own-gear/238758-diy-soft-weights.html

 

[Andres Cuevas]

Are you referring to lead in the water and it's contact time with divers or are you talking about lead that divers use as a ballast system?

MG

I'm referring to the material that we use as ballast system.
Sorry if my english is not clear enough, but it's not my first language.

Andres.

 

[Andres Cuevas]

...scubaboard.com/forums/new-divers-those-considering-diving/238653-question-about-weights-used-diving.html
.
.

Thanks for the links!!!

But sadly the answer "Just don't worry about it" is not enough to me.

It seams that nobody has an answer based on medical facts.
As I posted in my blog, DAN didn't give me a quick answer. If this is nothing to worry about, why DAN didn't responded that?

At the beginning of scuba diving no one knew about the issues with the accumulation of nitrogen during dives. At that time if you had made the question about problems with nitrogen accumulation the divers could have answered "Don't worry about it".

Andres.

 

[reefduffer]

This isn't a direct response on the subject, but here's a pointer to a great repository of dive medicine research:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/4391008-post5.html

Look at Gene's signature for the Rubicon Research Repository.

Hope that helps.

 

[miketsp]

It's very rare nowadays that I dive with bare lead weights. All the ones I own are plastified and no lead is visible or exposed.
Although I do a lot of diving in warmer water I still need around 15kg to dive in cold water and substituting lead by bronze just wouldn't be practical in terms of volume.
None of the other metals with the density of lead (or higher) are just not practical or not in my budget. (I really would love to have a gold belt - but can you imagine the mental anguish if you needed to dump it in an emergency? )

 

[Cave Diver]

Thanks for the links!!!

But sadly the answer "Just don't worry about it" is not enough to me.

It seams that nobody has an answer based on medical facts.
As I posted in my blog, DAN didn't give me a quick answer. If this is nothing to worry about, why DAN didn't responded that?

At the beginning of scuba diving no one knew about the issues with the accumulation of nitrogen during dives. At that time if you had made the question about problems with nitrogen accumulation the divers could have answered "Don't worry about it".

Andres.

As I skimmed through those posts, I thought I saw several references that would seem to answer the questions you ask, including the MSDS sheet for lead.

In a nutshell, unless you're eating your weights they seem to pose very little risk to you, or the environment.

I'd encourage you to read through the posts a little more closely and to follow the links and info provided in those posts before dismissing them.

 

[SteveAD]

It's very rare nowadays that I dive with bare lead weights. All the ones I own are plastified and no lead is visible or exposed.
Although I do a lot of diving in warmer water I still need around 15kg to dive in cold water and substituting lead by bronze just wouldn't be practical in terms of volume.
None of the other metals with the density of lead (or higher) are just not practical or not in my budget. (I really would love to have a gold belt - but can you imagine the mental anguish if you needed to dump it in an emergency? )

try depleted uranium

 

[muddiver]

"Don't worry about it" is probably based on the fact that a person must ingest lead to be affected by it. Just having lead in contact with the skin for the minutely limited amount of time that one would hold or lift SCUBA weights is not segnificant enough over the period of time the average SCUBA diver's life of diving.

Also, most lead weights are either enclosed in a weight system or they are just simply worn on the outside of the divers exposure suit, both of which keep the material from direct contact with the divers skin.

Lead diving weights are in a form that does not degrade into any form of dust. Contamination from ingestion of lead paint is because the lead is mixed in the paint as a powder and the paint tends to chip off of surfaces in very small ingetable flakes. Lead SCUBA weights are large, molded metal object that, unless abraded, will probably not degrage in to a dust or film.