The youngsters knew their sport could be dangerous, even deadly. 
 
 But for the junior team at the Vancouver (Wash.) Rifle and Pistol Club, the peril that emerged from their sport didn’t come from a stray bullet. 
 
 It came from lead. 
 
 In 2010, blood tests revealed that 20 youths had been overexposed to the poisonous metal after shooting in the club’s dirty, poorly ventilated range. 
 
 “It was devastating,” said Marc Ueltschi, the junior team coach and a club member. “It scared the life out of me. No one knew anything about lead poisoning and what to fix.” 
 
 Vancouver Rifle is just one of several private gun clubs across the United States that have posed health hazards in a sport with growing numbers of youths and women. 
 
 While those most likely to be poisoned by lead in gun ranges are the workers themselves, The Seattle Times has found dozens of avid shooters overexposed in such states as Washington, Massachusetts and Alaska. 
 
 The most vulnerable are children learning to shoot and compete in clubs operated by volunteers who may have little knowledge of the risks of firing lead ammunition. Gunfire can put lead residue in the air, and on the skin and nearby surfaces. 
 
 Clubs like Vancouver Rifle are membership-based organizations. With no paid employees, they aren’t governed by workplace-safety laws and aren’t subject to inspections that would identify deficiencies. 
 
 In this unregulated world of shooting, it’s nearly impossible to determine how many of the thousands of volunteer-based ranges are contaminated. 
 
 While lead poisoning among casual shooters is rare, the risk increases the more they shoot, particularly if it’s in poorly ventilated and maintained ranges. 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 “We weren’t very cautious” 
 
 While shooting at the Vancouver club, the children inhaled lead, ate lead and absorbed lead through skin contact from the dirty surfaces. 
 
 Cordelia Schadler started shooting in seventh grade at the Vancouver club. She and her two younger brothers practiced there with other kids aged 10 to 19 and participated in local, state and national marksmen competitions. 
 
 When blood-test reports revealed that the three Schadlers had elevated levels of lead in 2010, it surprised club members. 
 
 Their levels ranged from 12 to 17 micrograms per deciliter — much higher than the threshold of 5 that health officials now say can cause health problems for kids. 
 
 No level of lead is safe for children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even low levels of lead can decrease IQ, slow development and cause kidney damage. 
 
 “We weren’t very cautious,” Schadler, 18, recalled. “We would get lead on our hands and eat finger food.” 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 In March 2010, after receiving the test results, Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick launched an investigation. 
 
 Parents, volunteers and children soon discovered their club was contaminated with lead. 
 
 The club, formed in 1958, holds competitions like Bullseye Pistol and Cowboy Action and teaches firearms courses. The 250-member club has a junior team and also allows the JROTC, the Young Marines and Boy Scouts of America to shoot there. 
 
 An examination of the range revealed lead nestled in the carpet, chairs and a couch. Surface tests showed dangerous amounts of lead stuck to counters, a soda machine and the refrigerator, Clark County public records show. 
 
 The floor was 993 times higher than a federal housing guideline for allowable lead on surfaces. 
 
 Ventilation failed to move the airborne lead particles downrange away from shooters; volunteers rarely cleaned the 12 shooting lanes, according to records and interviews. 
 
 Even worse, children inhaled lead, ate lead and absorbed lead through skin contact with dirty surfaces. 
 
 Melnick urged that the junior team and the club members be tested for lead. The results: 20 of 32 children had elevated blood-lead levels. One 14-year-old shooter had 20 micrograms. 
 
 Vancouver Rifle and Pistol Club 
 
 While none of the shooters showed signs of being affected by the lead, Melnick said damage might not be noticed for many years. 
 
 “I think this is a silent killer,” Melnick said. “There’s skepticism because there are no symptoms at this level; the cognitive changes can be fairly subtle.” 
 
 Even coach Ueltschi’s son, Kyle, had an elevated level of lead. 
 
 “He’d get off practice, he’d go home and eat,” Marc Ueltschi said. “He was ingesting it.” 
 
 In April 2010, Melnick recommended kids not shoot at the range until it was fixed. Leaders of the club agreed, but if children had parental approval, they could shoot there. 
 
 Melnick surveyed shooters, discovering those spending more time in the club had higher lead in their system. He also found that several of them may have had additional sources of contamination because they used their home or garage as a shooting range and made their own ammunition. 
 
 Indoor ranges with inadequate ventilation pose the highest hazard to shooters. But even outdoor ranges can overexpose competitive shooters, depending on the wind direction, frequency of shooting and cleanliness of the area. 
 
 Some of the damaging effects of lead exposure The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states no level of lead is safe in children. Often symptoms of lead exposure may not appear, but damage can still occur. In rare cases, lead poisoning can cause a coma, seizure or death. Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times Sources: Public Health — Seattle and King County; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institutes of Health 
 
 Alaska teams exposed 
 
 Eight years earlier, a similar spate of lead exposures rocked the remote Tok School in interior Alaska, revealing a widespread problem for school rifle teams using poorly maintained ranges. 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 After the Tok team’s coach tested high for lead in 2002, public-health investigators soon learned student shooters practiced three to four times a week at a range inside their K-12 school’s multipurpose building. It also housed a hockey rink, was ventilated only by a utility fan and had carpeting loaded with lead dust. 
 
 Officials then tested the team’s seven members, aged 15 to 17, and found all had high lead levels, ranging from 21 to 31 micrograms per deciliter. The average is 1.2 micrograms for adults. 
 
 The Tok overexposures prompted a review of several other ranges used by school rifle teams in Alaska. Investigators soon found lead exposure in members of four other teams, including 10 students on Fairbanks’ Lathrop High School shooting squad. 
 
 Lathrop’s students often helped dry sweep the volunteer-run Tanana Valley Sportsmen’s Association shooting range, kicking up dust in the poorly ventilated facility. 
 
 Several other teams practiced at filthy ranges, including a school-operated range in a room also used for meetings, lunches, physical education and wrestling practice. 
 
 In all, investigators found significant lead exposure in 21 student shooters, several coaches and others. 
 
 How shooters can reduce lead exposure • Shoot only jacketed or lead-free ammo. • Avoid ranges that are dirty. Ask range management about facility’s ventilation system and housekeeping practices. Consider shooting at outdoor ranges, which have less lead exposure. • Don’t eat, drink or smoke while shooting to prevent ingesting lead dust. • Check surfaces for contamination with lead-check swabs, available at hardware stores. • After shooting, wash face, hands and forearms at the range with cold water, preferably with D-Lead or other soap designed to remove heavy metals. • Keep gear, shoes and clothes worn at the range in a plastic bag or bin when leaving range. Wash lead-contaminated shoes and clothing separately from other clothes. • Wear gloves and eye protection when cleaning guns and rifles. • Have a doctor check the lead levels in your blood to see if treatment for lead exposure is needed. • To talk to a specialist about lead safety, call 1-800-424-LEAD (5323), and press option 1 then 9. Graphics by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times Sources: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; California Department of Health; New York Department of Health 
 
 When investigators looked at two other shooting teams that used a properly cleaned and ventilated commercial range, not a single member tested high for lead. 
 
 The lack of regulation at volunteer-run ranges contributed to the overexposures, investigators concluded. They recommended local health officials identify unregulated ranges in their areas and encourage owners to get them assessed and to address potential lead problems. 
 
 The investigation spurred case studies still used by public-health officials nationwide. But the problems identified are still repeated — even in Alaska. 
 
 In 2007, health investigators trying to figure out why a 1-year-old had elevated blood-lead levels learned the baby’s brother was on the rifle team at Delta High, near Fairbanks. After tests revealed lead poisoning in the brother, officials theorized he unknowingly contaminated the baby by tracking lead home from shooting practice. 
 
 “We thought, ‘Wow, we should check the whole team,’” said Lori Verbrugge, then a state public-health program manager who helped conduct the investigation. 
 
 Investigators soon found four other team members with high lead levels. Officials recommended the community range hire a consultant to assess its operations, and proposed to the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) to “make blood testing a standard practice for all kids that participate in this sport,” Verbrugge said. 
 
 PJ Ford Slack, then-superintendent of the Delta Greely School District, noted that the ASAA, which oversees Alaska’s interscholastic sports programs, had adopted strict rules for some sports over the years. But when it came to regulating rifle teams, the association balked, she said. 
 
 “They have a concussion policy, so why not one for lead poisoning?” Ford Slack asked. “But Alaska is a hunting state. Guns are part of the culture here and this became a political thing.” 
 
 Gary Matthews, then the ASAA’s executive director, said his group’s board of directors adopted voluntary “health considerations” for school shooting sports to avoid lead exposure. But representatives of schools with rifle teams largely opposed mandatory blood tests as too expensive and invasive, he said. 
 
 Ford Slack, whose husband later coached the Delta team, noted the squad improved its shooting hygiene and the community range also changed protocols. 
 
 In recent years, several shooting teams in Alaska have switched from small-bore firearms to air rifles, which can reduce lead exposure risks. 
 
 Still, firing ranges remain Alaska’s No. 1 source for lead exposure in children aged 6 to 17, the latest state study shows. 
 
 Teens test high for lead 
 
 Zachary Comeau / Milford Daily News 
 
 Just a few months ago outside Boston, three teenagers on a competitive shooting team tested high for lead. 
 
 The team practiced at the Hopedale Pistol and Rifle Club, an institution for more than half a century in the town of 5,900. 
 
 Their elevated blood-lead levels triggered a visit from the local health department. Some parents with kids on the team were disturbed to learn that shooters had been overexposed. Other club members were irate that the matter wasn’t handled in-house first, said Hopedale health agent Lenny Izzo. 
 
 The members-only club agreed to have the state’s Department of Labor and Standards examine its brick building, which housed a clubhouse, eight shooting lanes and a “reloading” room with melting pots and molds for making bullets. 
 
 An inspector detected poor ventilation and extremely high amounts of lead on surfaces in the lanes and clubhouse. 
 
 The club recently closed, hired an abatement company to clean the property and remains shuttered. 
 
 Had it not voluntarily closed, Izzo said, Hopedale’s health board would have forced it to close. 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 Kentucky instructor says ‘I was clueless’ about lead danger PARIS, Ky. — Forty-year-old Colleene Barnett learned the hard way. First as an avid shooter, then as a firearms instructor, she never gave a thought to lead. She spent 30 to 35 hours a week in Smokin’ Guns, an old bowling alley converted into a poorly ventilated indoor shooting range in this small city northeast of Lexington. She taught concealed-carry classes and defensive handgun training for women, hovering inches away from her students as they fired off round after round. Between classes, she ate right in the range. “I was totally clueless about protecting myself,” she said. Her clothes, car and home became contaminated with lead. Her hands tingled and she felt fatigued. Barnett blamed her autoimmune disease for feeling sick, so she was shocked when a physician told her she had dangerous levels of lead in her blood in 2012. Lead, not her disease, was causing most of her health problems. Barnett stopped going to Smokin’ Guns, and her blood-lead levels slowly started to go down. What disappointed Barnett most was that she couldn’t breast-feed her adopted newborn. Her physician told her she could pass lead to her daughter through the milk. For women of childbearing age, high lead levels can be dangerous, causing miscarriages and birth defects. Physicians advise pregnant women to stay away from shooting ranges. Barnett wishes someone had told her the do’s and don’ts of lead and shooting ranges. She also wants to spread the word about lead risks to the growing ranks of women who have taken up shooting for protection or sport. “I’m preaching it and I’m on the soap box,” she said. The number of women owning a handgun has increased, according to polling by Gallup. And of the new target shooters, 37 percent are female, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun-industry group. Barnett is on a mission to educate new shooters about lead hazards. She believes everyone needs to be accountable — from the gun-range owners and employees to shooters and the public. She suggests shooters ask a range about its cleanliness and ventilation, and adopt a personal-hygiene regimen. People routinely put on sunscreen for protection when going to the beach, she pointed out. Likewise, shooters always should use special lead-removal soaps or wipes to clean their hands and face after shooting. Read more ▾ 
 
 How to help prevent cross-contamination 
 
 Pricey protection 
 
 In another case, a dirty Wisconsin gun range, open to the public, operated for years in the basement of a middle school. 
 
 At the Sheboygan Rifle and Pistol Club, an hour north of Milwaukee, rifle-club members and city residents took safety classes and shot in the basement range after children were dismissed for the day from Urban Middle School. 
 
 In 2007, parents who were worried that students and staff could be at risk pressured the Sheboygan School District to test the range. 
 
 “It’s an important tradition here in Wisconsin — shooting,” said Lisa Janairo, one of the parents. “We believed they were taking no measures to protect shooters and the students, staff and teachers.” 
 
 Tests by an environmental company showed shooters tracked lead into the school’s hallway but it posed little risk to students and staff. 
 
 But inside the range, a certified industrial hygienist said in a report, ventilation failed to protect shooters and lead on a trophy table was 105 times the standard used by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 
 
 The rifle club cleaned the range and changed practices but couldn’t afford the $50,000 upgrade to the range’s ventilation system and decided to close. 
 
 In North Carolina, school officials evacuated and closed the Hemlock Building at the Asheville-Bumcombe Technical Community College in 2011 after tests found high lead levels linked to an indoor firing range used by law-enforcement students. 
 
 Lead from the ground-floor gun range had spread to all three floors through a ventilation system and by people tracking it. 
 
 The college has since dismantled the range and cleaned up the building. 
 
 Earlier this year in Helena, Mont., officials shut down one of the state’s largest middle schools for about a week after finding lead contamination in the building from a sealed-off, basement gun range that had operated decades earlier. 
 
 No one at C.R. Anderson Middle School tested high for blood-lead levels. In all, the district had to spend about $130,000 addressing the issue. 
 
 Clean bill of health 
 
 Children lug heavy rifle bags, bigger than they are, past the display case of trophies and the deer mounted on the wall at the Vancouver club. 
 
 At the start of practice, young shooters assemble their small-bore rifles, some costing as much as $2,000. They put on shooting garb — heavy pants, strapped-jackets and flat-soled shoes. 
 
 On the range floor, Thomas Kuzis, 14, of Vancouver, lies on a mat in prone position, looks through his rifle sight and steadies his body. He slowly exhales and fires at the target 50 feet away. 
 
 “Line cold — targets!” Ueltschi shouts, the command to stop firing, secure their weapons, then retrieve their targets at the end of the lanes. 
 
 A dozen rifle-team members including Kuzis gather their paper targets and then hand them to their coach. 
 
 “Consistency — this is what we wanted to see,” Ueltschi tells Kuzis, and pats him on the back. 
 
 Kuzis smiles, proud of his improvement. 
 
 He and the other members practice twice a week and will shoot in up to 23 competitions this year. 
 
 Doris Kuzis said she makes sure her son doesn’t eat or drink while shooting, keeps his shooting clothes in the gun bag and always washes his hands. 
 
 But at a practice earlier this year, some team members left practice without washing their hands and face. 
 
 Asked about it, Ueltschi said kids must be frequently reminded how to avoid lead. 
 
 A National Rifle Association grant had helped pay for upgrades to the ventilation and the building. Those improvements, combined with good housekeeping and personal hygiene, have lowered the lead levels of the team members, he said. 
 
 In January 2011, the county gave it a clean bill of health. 
 
 Ueltschi is thankful Clark County Public Health intervened. 
 
 “We saw everything that we were doing wrong, why it was wrong, what we needed to do and we did it,” he said. “Not only did it protect kids, it also saved the club from having to permanently close.” 
 
 Still, there are some ranges the coach won’t step into because they are so contaminated. 
 
 Ueltschi said the shooting public — especially the children just starting in the sport — need to be informed about the dangers of lead. 
 
 Christine Willmsen: cwillmsen@seattletimes.com or 206-464-3261. On Twitter @christinesea. 
 
 Lewis Kamb: lkamb@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2932. On Twitter @LewisKamb. ||||| Rely on Occupational Safety & Health ReporterSM for full news coverage and documentation of federal and state workplace safety and health programs, standards, legislation,... 
 
 By Sylvia Carignan 
 
 An upcoming military policy, expected to dictate safer lead exposure levels, will follow a new wave of contamination cleanup efforts being carried out by the National Guard. 
 
 OSHA and the Department of Defense are reviewing their current limits for occupational lead exposure in the face of years-old data that shows the current limits are dangerously lax when it comes to workers and soldiers exposed to the metal. 
 
 According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s current standards, if workers could be exposed to airborne concentrations of lead of at least 30 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour workday, employers must monitor lead. 
 
 Employees whose blood lead level measures at or above 40 micrograms per deciliter must also be monitored as physicians have associated those levels with cognitive and behavioral impacts. 
 
 But a 2013 National Research Council report on Department of Defense personnel exposed to lead at firing ranges found that limit is unsafe. 
 
 “There is overwhelming evidence that the OSHA standard provides inadequate protection for DOD firing-range personnel and for any other worker populations covered by the general industry standard,” the report said. 
 
 Meanwhile, the National Guard has ordered the assessment and cleanup of lead dust in its indoor firing ranges. Until cleanup is complete, the National Guard has ordered the facilities remain vacant. 
 
 The Guard’s Dec. 6 order came on the heels of an 18-month investigation by The Oregonian newspaper, which found hundreds of armories across the country contaminated with dangerous levels of lead dust. 
 
 States are required to tell the National Guard by Jan. 31 what firing ranges they have, what condition they are in and whether cleanup has been completed. 
 
 Updating Standards 
 
 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends allowed blood lead levels for all adults be reduced to less than 10 micrograms per deciliter. 
 
 The 2013 National Research Council report that DOD funded found that lead exposure affects the birth weight and growth of fetuses in mothers with blood lead levels under 5 micrograms per deciliter, raising concerns as more women enter combat roles. 
 
 Lead exposure also can cause hypertension and cognitive dysfunction in adults. 
 
 “Because of the new information on health risks at these lower-range elevated (blood lead levels), the agency is exploring the possibility of modifying the lead standards in order to reduce the risk of significant health effects for the 1.5 million workers potentially exposed to lead,” said Mandy Kraft, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor. 
 
 A proposed OSHA rule ( RIN: 1218-AD10 ) is “exploring regulatory options to lower blood leads in affected workers,” but does not define a new safe range for lead exposure. 
 
 The Defense Department is working with OSHA and its research arm, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, to determine allowable levels of lead exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also is considering lowering its threshold for childhood blood lead levels, though the agency acknowledges no level of lead is safe for children. 
 
 Looking Forward 
 
 The Defense Department expects to issue its new blood lead levels policy first, followed by the airborne lead concentration policy in late 2017. The department has yet to issue its new safe range for exposure to the metal, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. James B. Brindle said. 
 
 According to Brindle, about 1,200 defense workers are annually monitored for blood-borne lead because of the potential of exposure in their workplaces. 
 
 About seven workers each year have blood lead levels that exceed OSHA’s allowances. 
 
 Historically, an average of 89 workers per year have had blood lead levels exceeding the standards under consideration for the department’s new policy. 
 
 “We expect the actual number of workers to be lower after the policy is fully implemented,” Brindle said. 
 
 For workplaces currently undergoing lead monitoring or cleanup, Brindle said it would be up to individual occupational health offices to determine whether cleanup needs to be re-done when the new OSHA and Department of Defense standards are released. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Sylvia Carignan at scarignan@bna.com 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Pearl at lpearl@bna.com 
 
 Copyright © 2017 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ||||| Julia Levine asked a seemingly impertinent question while learning to shoot rifles in Vermont last fall: Were the bullets made of lead? 
 
 Levine, 30, of Stowe, was starting a family and her companion at the all-female retreat, “Doe Camp,” was pregnant. High exposure to lead can put a woman at risk for miscarriage or birth defects. 
 
 “At first, he was very dismissive when I asked him his opinion on lead,” she said of the instructor. “He was one of those down-home Vermonters who have been shooting with lead from the beginning of time. But that’s not what the science says.” 
 
 Lead poisoning, which can cause serious neurological problems and even death, is most often associated with peeling paint chips in old houses, not recreational shooting. But with more women and youth joining the 40 million Americans who enjoy gun sports, experts say the use of lead ammunition can pose deadly risks. 
 
 “Unfortunately, a lot of operators are unaware that overexposure to lead is a real issue." 
 
 In 2010, 20 children and teens at a Vancouver, Washington, indoor shooting club tested positive for lead poisoning, according to a recent year-long investigation by The Seattle Times. A study in Alaska revealed that the single largest source of lead exposure in children aged 6 to 17 was firing ranges. 
 
 Lead dust can enter the body in two ways, inhalation and ingestion. Unsafe exposure can cause nausea and fatigue, organ damage and mental impairment. 
 
 Children are the most vulnerable to the effects of lead because their brains are still developing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Negative health effects can be lifelong. 
 
 Yet many firing ranges host birthday parties and other events where youngsters can ingest lead after touching contaminated surfaces. 
 
 “I am familiar with at least one case where children were allowed to play in the earth backstop with their Tonka trucks while the range was closed,” said Jack J. Giordano, a shooting range safety and health specialist based in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
 
 “Unfortunately, a lot of operators are unaware that overexposure to lead is a real issue,” he told NBC News. 
 
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 When a gun is fired, the base of a lead bullet can become airborne as microscopic particulate. The bullet fragments further when it hits a target or backstop. That entire area can be contaminated. 
 
 “Police officers bring their kids to the shooting range to practice pitch for the baseball team and set up a ball catching net on the pistol range,” said Giordano. 
 
 “When handling ammunition,” he said, “parents need to be aware kids shouldn’t be eating or putting things in their mouth or drinking or eating on the range itself.” 
 
 Federal regulations require operators to keep the range properly maintained; workers must be trained and provided with protective equipment. 
 
 “Parents need to be aware kids shouldn’t be eating or putting things in their mouth or drinking or eating on the range itself.” 
 
 The dangers of lead poisoning are most acute at poorly ventilated indoor ranges. 
 
 According to the CDC, thousands of Americans are exposed to lead at the nation’s 16,000 to 18,000 indoor firing ranges, despite health outreach efforts. 
 
 A recent CDC report found that between 2002 and 2012, a total of 2,056 Americans in “police protection” and 2,673 likely involved in “target shooting” had elevated blood lead levels. 
 
 The CDC blamed indoor ranges for failing to monitor for personal exposure and “dry sweeping” lead-containing dust. 
 
 Workers are at greatest risk for chronic lead exposure when the ranges are not properly ventilated or cleaned. One Kentucky firearms instructor told the Seattle Times she had such dangerous levels of lead in her blood that she was not allowed to breast-feed her newborn. 
 
 No levels of lead are safe for children, according to the CDC. In adults, 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead in the blood is considered elevated and potentially harmful. At 25 micrograms, serious health problems can occur; at 100, there can be severe brain and kidney damage. 
 
 NRA-certified shooting instructor Larry Hamel says he modifies procedures to keep people safe from lead. Jack Rowell 
 
 That’s what worried Julia Levine at the shooting range in Vermont, but both she and her pregnant friend went on to have healthy babies. 
 
 Levine said that despite her initial concerns, the shooting experience was positive. “There is definitely a feeling of power and accomplishment in it,” she said. 
 
 Her instructor, NRA-certified Larry Hamel, said that he switched to copper-jacketed bullets, which encapsulate the lead. 
 
 Hamel, president of the Lamoille Valley Fish & Game Club, said he also monitored carefully where the two women stood on the range. 
 
 “Why take a chance? We err on the side of caution,” he told NBC News. “We have learned a lot about lead in the past couple of years. We pay attention and take it to heart. Lead sickens people.”
– Visiting a shooting range is not without risk, and we aren't talking about deadly accidents. Lead dust discharged by firearms is the leading cause of lead poisoning outside the workplace, the Seattle Times reported in a lengthy 2014 investigation. Each time a gun filled with lead-based ammunition is fired, a cloud of lead particles trails in the bullet's wake. The dust hangs in the air and collects on clothing, creating a hazard to anyone who comes in contact with it. The Times' conclusion: "Thousands of ... workers, shooters, and their family members have been contaminated at shooting ranges due to poor ventilation and contact with lead-coated surfaces." A 2016 Oregonian investigation backs that up, noting the ventilation system at a former National Guard Armory in Montana was clogged with "lead-laced bunnies the size of tangerines"; 20 workers fell ill. NPR takes a look at one move that has since been made: The Department of Defense in April tightened its limit for acceptable levels of lead in blood to 20 micrograms per deciliter. Bloomberg earlier this year cited a DoD rep who said roughly 1,200 DOD employees have their blood monitored for lead due to workplace exposure. The CDC adds these stats: 1.2 million law enforcement officials risk exposure as part of their weapons-training requirements; as many as 60,000 Americans work in shooting ranges, and 34 million Americans target shoot. But firearms advocates say fears of lead poisoning are "unsupported by evidence." A rep for the National Shooting Sports Foundation tells NPR he sees an effort afoot to "diminish people's participation in shooting sports or exercise their second amendment rights."