This document summarizes a study of lead exposure and surface contamination at an indoor firing range. Air and surface wipe samples found personal lead exposure to be below regulatory limits but surface contamination levels increased 10-fold after firing. Recommendations include thoroughly cleaning surfaces with HEPA vacuuming, using double gloves to handle contaminated surfaces, and avoiding touching doors with contaminated gloves. The study aimed to evaluate lead exposure for an operator and surface contamination from firing bullets indoors.

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Personal breathing zone exposure monitoring
and surface contamination study of Lead at an
indoor firing range
Prasanth.K, Deputy Project Manager, India
International Safety Systems, Inc. (ISS), India

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AGENDA
Background on indoor firing range
Test Environment and Activity
Methods and Evaluation criteria
Results and Observations
Lessons Learned
Recommendations

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Background
Indoor firing ranges used for
Shooting practice (Person inside firing range)
Testing Kevlar material (Person can be outside)
Potential Hazards (Noise and Lead)
Bullets are loaded with gunpowder and have
Lead based primer.

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Lead vaporized due to heat and pressure
within the cartridge (at the firing instance).
The heat of the reaction and cooling results in
formation of lead particles at
Source
Bullet trap
Path way

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Test Environment and Activity
Indoor firing range had:
Heating and Ventilated Air Circulation (HVAC) system
(2 supply ducts from top and 4 return ducts from side
walls) with 20 air changes per hour
Acoustic enclosure
Bullet traps
Operator places Kevlar material at test stand and
loads the barrel with bullet and trigger is pulled
from outside the room.

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Operator used apron and single pair of Nitrile
gloves
Test centre cleaned daily with dry mop
followed by wet mop.

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Objective of study
To identify eight-hour/full shift personal
breathing zone exposure to lead particulates for
operator testing the kevlar by firing bullets in an
Indoor firing range.
To evaluate the level of surface contamination
due to the deposition of lead particulates.

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Method and Sampling Strategy
Air sampling
 Three samples collected using Modified NIOSH 7300;
Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma-Atomic Emission
Spectrometry (ICP-AES)
 Sampling media: 37mm Matched Weight (MW) Mixed
Cellulose Ester (MCE) filter
 Sampling flow rate: 4 litres/minute
 Sampling duration: 7 hours. (Not sampled during lunch
break)
 Two filters used for 3.5 hours each to avoid overloading
of particulates on filter.

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Wipe sampling
 Modified NIOSH 9102 (ICP-AES)
 Sampling media: Moistened Lead Dust sampling wipe
 Wipe samples collected before start of the activity
(beginning of shift) after completion of activity (end of
shift)
 Wipe samples collected at 11 locations over an area of
100 cm2

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Evaluation Criteria
Air samples
 Eight-Hour Time Weighted Average (TWA) exposure
compared with ACGIH TLV-TWA of 0.05 mg/m3 (50
μg/m3)
Wipe samples
 OSHA guideline for a level of acceptable lead loading
for non-lead work areas of 0.2 μg/cm2. (Legally not
applicable).

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Results and observations
Range of Personal Breathing Zone exposure – 1.0
µg/m3 to 1.7 µg/m3
Exposure varies:
Based on the number of bullets fired.
Duration of person inside the firing range.
Wipe samples results at beginning of shift - 0.02
µg/cm2 to 4.1 µg/cm2
Wipe samples results at end of shift – 0.13
µg/cm2 to 38 µg/cm2

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Lessons Learnt
Employee exposure, without regard to use of
respirator was below 10% of ACGIH TLV-TWA.
The surface contamination level increased by
10 folds, after firing of bullets.
Potential for ingestion risk exists due to
surface contamination.

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Recommendations
Clean all surfaces effectively with the use of a
High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter
vacuum cleaner.
Use dual pair of disposable nitrile gloves before
contacting potential contaminated surfaces.
Remove the outer pair of gloves after it is
contaminated.
Avoid touching of door handles with
contaminated gloves

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References
• Indoor Firing Ranges Industrial Hygiene
Technical Guide (Navy Environmental Health Center)

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Thank You!
Any questions ?
Prasanth K.
Prasanth.k@issehs.com

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