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Just got some sweet helmeted heads for my henchmen from Pig Iron Miniatures. I open the package and see:

Warning: Contains lead. Unsuitable for children under 15 years of age.


I am scraping off the mold lines and probably dispersing small bits of the lead containing metal into the air. Should I be worried personally about lead poisoning? I imagine not, since I am way beyond 15 and my brain already functions horribly.

But...

I have family they occasionally visits and they have a small 5 pound dog. I don't know where all the little teeny tiny shavings go, I don't know if a wipedown and a vacuuming will get all of them or even most of them. Do I need to quarantine the whole room? What if anything do you do to clean up after cutting and scraping lead containing metals?

I'd just make sure you clean the models in a contained space, E.G. inside an old box or some such, and wash yours hands after dealing with the models you should be fine.

I've bought and trimmed a large number of Pig Iron helmets and I don't think I've brained my damage.

Don't worry about it unless you are sitting there and eating them for breakfast. Until about 15 years ago lead was the standard material for miniatures. I guess that could explain the general lack of social skills and bad hygiene I have scene at times, but since those issues are still prevalent I'm not going to blame the lead.

In short don't eat it and you will be fine.

Since you are worried about the lead content just take these precautions and you should be fine

Wear disposable vinyl or latex gloves when you are filing or scraping your figures. This is a must if you have a cut or scrape one your hands.

Wear a mask if you are using a Dremmel tool like I do to clean up heavy mold lines or remove unwanted detail, lead dust is bad.

Wash your hands after you finish.

Normally you won't have a worry about lead figures and parts if they are new, the only problem would be if they are very old and oxidizing. If your figure has a whitish powder on it use the above precautions and wash it off in soapy water. Lead oxide is not a good thing as it is finer than the dust you would get doing a normal build. I turned down a large job worth $150 to paint a guys Napoleonic figures that he had stashed for 20+ years. They were covered in oxide powder so bad it looked like they were in baby powder. Always weigh the risk with the pay off, lead is as safe as you make it.

If it was too dangerous it wouldn't be allowed at all. As long as you're not actually chewing on the stuff it'll be fine. A good hoovering will pick up most of the flash and any that it leaves will be so well embedded its unlikely to be removable by any means.

Unless you are also eating the lead filings you should be OK.

Sweeping/vacuuming should be fine it only tends to be long term exposure/ingestion which will cause problems. They have to state it because the law requires manufactuers to be ultra cautious

When I started collecting GW miniatures a billion years ago all of their figures were lead and I never used to bother with any precautions as I was 12 and stupid.

As far as I can tell I haven't received any adverse effects, I'm still alive

I think unless you eat an entire space marine squad you will be fine

Contrary to popular belief, lead is not cyanide. Remember lead based paints? The didn't result in the death and retardation of millions. We just tend to over react when we find out something we use often is a poison. Exposure to trace amounts of lead over the course of decades wouldn't effect you.

The warning is there to keep people from letting their babies play with them as toys, chewing and sucking on them, which could cause problems (over years) to their developing bodies. Don't chew and suck on them and you will be fine.

Remember; no matter how tasty looking they are, miniatures are not sweets.

Eiríkr wrote:Remember; no matter how tasty looking they are, miniatures are not sweets.

*takes the space marine out of his mouth sadly*

Most product warnings grossly exaggerate the inherent dangers. No company wants to be held liable for that one in a million issue that arises from exceptional circumstances (one can easily replace "circumstances" with "stupidity," here), so they slap some scary words on the product.

Should you treat the parts like candy? Of course not. However, you can easily put them through the usual processes of miniature preparation without coming to any real harm (WARNING: A bag full of lead heads contains chemicals believed by the state of California to cause spontaneous human combustion, first to the modeler's loved ones and finally to him).

Besides, scraping off mold lines won't vaporize the stuff. Metal particles are big and heavy, as particulates go - even if you were using a powered sander on the things with your face mere inches away, a disposable dust mask - hell, pulling your T-shirt up over your face - would keep your airways safe enough.

In all seriousness, I'm not one to advise completely disregarding safety and usage warnings, but don't immediately assume the worst, either. While some are absolutely necessary and in no way exaggerated, most are simply a means for the producer to avoid liability in a worst case scenario. I'd be far more concerned about the solvent fumes from the adhesives and paints we frequently employ than from prepping a few minis that contain some proportion of lead.

All I am doing is cutting the heads off the sprue with knife, and scraping the mold lines with the backside, the dull side, of the knife.

Cutting them off the sprue results in no pieces or big ones, scraping probably some finer ones. I guess I should just wear a cheap mask just in case and clean up well afterwards....

I'd be far more concerned about the solvent fumes from the adhesives and paints we frequently employ

Good point. Puts things into perspective.

Sure, if you want, but honestly it's overkill. Just don't eat them over the course of several years and you'll be fine. Heck, you could eat a dozen and not suffer any ill effects (beyond the obvious). Just don't make a habit of it.

If you don't chew on them, you should be fine

As others have said, it's repeated exposure (mostly ingestion/eating) to lead dust that causes problems. Just wash your hands and sweep up the filingsand you will be fine.

This is a much larger problem with small children as incresed lead levels can slow their development. That's why lead paint chips are so dangerous. Kids eat them, and because they are so low to the ground they breath in a much higher concentration than adults.

Even with kids though you should be fine if you wash up and sweep and vac after use.

It's not that harmful, you need a lot of exposure to lead to do any harm. All figures used to be made with lead and have higher lead contents than today, no one died of lead poisoning.

Unlike resin dust it isn't light, so you won't get clouds of it in the air that you will breathe in. So unless you put the figures in your mouth or snort the dust up your nose like crack cocaine you'll be okay.

You should wash your hands after handing then for a period though, because the lead will rub off on your hands and then if you prepare food or put them in your mouth... well you get the idea. Other than that treat them like normal figures.

The issue with lead and lead based paints with regards to small children is that lead has a "sweet" flavour and this was one of the "enticements" for small children to try to eat them (not that small children need much in the way of encouragement to put things in their mouths that they shouldn't).

Skippy wrote:

Eiríkr wrote:Remember; no matter how tasty looking they are, miniatures are not sweets.

*takes the space marine out of his mouth sadly*

overlooked

Andrew1975 wrote:Don't worry about it unless you are sitting there and eating them for breakfast. Until about 15 years ago lead was the standard material for miniatures. I guess that could explain the general lack of social skills and bad hygiene I have scene at times, but since those issues are still prevalent I'm not going to blame the lead.

In short don't eat it and you will be fine.

Ah, but what's scarier is the unseen!