Doing the laundry with two bullet casings..do I need new clothes?

October 23, 2015 3:19 PM

If I found two bullet casings in the dryer after drying my clothes in them, does this mean my clothing now has lead in it?

Today I found two bullet casings in the dryer after my clothes were dried. I live with someone who likes to go to the gun range and we have the share the machines. He regularly washes the clothes he wears to the range in the machines. While today is the first time I found casings in the machines, I would not be surprised if they've been in my other loads of laundry before without me noticing.

Now, maybe I'm mistaken but lead doesn't degrade. I don't want to overreact but I'm also not too keen on wearing clothing that has lead dried into it. I've already washed it and dried it again but now I'm wondering if I should stop using the machines altogether if this roommate of mine continues to use the washing machines to wash his gun range clothing. How much lead can get washed out anyway?

posted by driedmango to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Do you regularly suck on or breathe through your clothing? Lead is absorbed through ingestion and inhalation, not skin contact.

Ask your roommate to be more careful with his casings and check the machines before you use them. You should be fine.
posted by charmcityblues at 3:23 PM on October 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

also, at least back when i last used a gun, the casings are not lead. they're brass or some (other) alloy.
posted by andrewcooke at 3:27 PM on October 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

Most bullet casings are usually made of brass. There should only be pretty trace amounts of lead on the casing itself.
posted by GuyZero at 3:29 PM on October 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: I appreciate the answers so far, just to be clear, (1) there isn't any lead left in the casings to be exposed to and (2) even if there was lead, it can be washed out of the clothing...?
posted by driedmango at 3:30 PM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

You're fine.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:38 PM on October 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: You're good.
Even if there was trace lead left on the jackets, the amount is soooooooooooooooooooo vanishingly small as to be inconsequential. Your health is more at risk due to background radiation than to what microscopically little lead might have been left on the jackets. And, yes, there's every probability it was flushed down the drain.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:41 PM on October 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

It's also likely that the bullets are jacketed in copper, so there'd be trivial amounts of lead on the casings to begin with. You're gonna be fine!
posted by Sternmeyer at 3:50 PM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Note also that the casings had already been laundered and dried once before your clothes came into contact with them.
posted by aubilenon at 3:55 PM on October 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Lead aside, the casings, depending on condition, could do some mechanical damage to your clothing, and, assuming you are on decent terms with your cohabitant, asking him to check more carefully for spent casings wouldn't be unreasonable. I'd also adopt the habit of checking the washing machine before putting my clothes in. I use a laundromat, and I have occasionally found things in there I didn't want on my clothes (nothing gross; mostly stray bits of fabric, coins, and bobby pins).
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:04 PM on October 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Yeah you should be more concerned about their status as small thin metal objects that have been subjected to stress and could plausibly rip holes in things.
posted by PMdixon at 4:10 PM on October 23, 2015 [2 favorites]