Get The Lead Out

It's time to say good bye to lead my friends.

Nope, not these guys.

These guys:

I'll admit it, I'm stingy. I like to save money. I tend to flirt danger as well, and ignore environmental warnings sometimes. I don't necessarily pour motor oil down drains, but when it comes to my own health I can be a little careless. But I just can't do it anymore when it comes to lead.

Look, I'll be honest, I'm no scientist. I don't know how much lead is safe or bad for you, but I do know that as a fly tyer I come into constant contact with it. I use lead eyes and lead wrap all the time. I paint my Clouser eyes myself, and I weight just about everything in my box with it that doesn't have a bead.

I love it because it's just so damned cheap. But, I'm giving it up. I've started researching it a bit and found this:

From: http://www.prevention-news.com/

High doses of LEAD can cause brain damage, mental retardation, behavior problems, anemia, and a wide variety of other serious damage to the body parts, and in extreme cases, even death.

Poisoning of the human system by LEAD presents itself most often in the nervous system, the red blood cells, the bones, and the kidneys, but it can also affect reproduction.

That's some heavy stuff right there. I couldn't find a level of acceptable lead contact, so I'm going to assume it's all bad. I'm probably going to go home and clean up my ammo bins too so it doesn't come into contact with my lip reeds, turkey calls, or face masks. I probably should have thought about that a long time ago. Oh well.

If you have a lot of lead fly tying materials consider going non lead. I'll admit, it's not cheaper to do so. Also, some of the materials aren't as heavy either, but I imagine one day you're health will thank you for it.

Thanks for reading,

Josh Rust