A buddy of mine is an ER surgeon in a rough city in the US. Says that they usually don’t take out bullets from people, just leave them unless they’re causing a problem specifically. It blows my mind that the human body is just fine with it
Would they not be able to go through metal detectors or get MRIs? And is lead poisoning not an issue? Maybe getting it out is more risky, but it seems like there’d be downsides.
Iirc lead poisoning isn’t much of an issue because your body encapsulates it, preventing the body from absorbing it.
Metal detectors are a non issue. My dad has several pieces of metal in his spine from surgeries. He occasionally sets off metal detectors, but it’s never been a huge issue with security. It’s more common than you think. People have metal plates, screws and general hardware put in surgically for a variety of reasons. It’s fairly common.
Probably depends on the round as well. NATO rounds are fully jacketed so the copper would have to dissolve before the lead was exposed to the body. For a hollow point or otherwise damaged round, then I think yes lead would be exposed to the body. No clue about danger of that though
You got me thinking. Cheap, non-hollow point rounds of all sorts are jacketed. I buy the crappiest ammo I can find and the .22s are the only rounds with exposed lead. And some of those are copper clad.
Copper being more expensive than lead, why is that? Smoother feeding, don’t get dented up, something like that?
Ooh look up dum dum rounds, there was a YouTube video I watched recently, but if you like firearms it’s a fun watch.
So iirc, lead is so soft that when we started using auto feeding the lead deformed and you would fail to load a round. Copper is used because it is softer than the steel barrel so the rifling will grab onto the bullet, but hard enough not to deform with normal use and in the barrel.
But then you find out that they are bad at killing humans.
My grandfather lived with a bullet in his foot for the majority of his life. When he passed he was cremated and my mom asked if she could keep the bullet, but apparently nothing makes it out of the cremation process. Whatever metal you have inside you is turned to ash as well.
Fun fact: cremation doesn’t completely burn up the human body. A certain amount of solid bone fragments remain, which are ground up. This almost entirely forms the “ashes”.
Assuming the bullet was lead (which melts at about a third of cremation fire temperatures), it likely ended up as little blobs and was then ground up. Your mother still has the bullet, it’s just in powder form now.
Just got a .177 pellet cut out of my hand while having another procedure. Took years until I noticed it bothering me.
Got a femur full of deck screws and titanium plates, took 10-years for the pain to 100% wear off, but all that might as well not be there for all I can feel.
Not really related, but of a similar vein:
A buddy of mine is an ER surgeon in a rough city in the US. Says that they usually don’t take out bullets from people, just leave them unless they’re causing a problem specifically. It blows my mind that the human body is just fine with it
The body:
the hell is this?
Checks it out
Well I’m not dealing with it. I’m just gonna mark/wall it off.
Ah, the same way I deal with issues in my life. Good to know that the tendency goes all the way to the bone.
Would they not be able to go through metal detectors or get MRIs? And is lead poisoning not an issue? Maybe getting it out is more risky, but it seems like there’d be downsides.
Iirc lead poisoning isn’t much of an issue because your body encapsulates it, preventing the body from absorbing it.
Metal detectors are a non issue. My dad has several pieces of metal in his spine from surgeries. He occasionally sets off metal detectors, but it’s never been a huge issue with security. It’s more common than you think. People have metal plates, screws and general hardware put in surgically for a variety of reasons. It’s fairly common.
Humans are so metal (with a little bit of surgery)
Probably depends on the round as well. NATO rounds are fully jacketed so the copper would have to dissolve before the lead was exposed to the body. For a hollow point or otherwise damaged round, then I think yes lead would be exposed to the body. No clue about danger of that though
You got me thinking. Cheap, non-hollow point rounds of all sorts are jacketed. I buy the crappiest ammo I can find and the .22s are the only rounds with exposed lead. And some of those are copper clad.
Copper being more expensive than lead, why is that? Smoother feeding, don’t get dented up, something like that?
Ooh look up dum dum rounds, there was a YouTube video I watched recently, but if you like firearms it’s a fun watch.
So iirc, lead is so soft that when we started using auto feeding the lead deformed and you would fail to load a round. Copper is used because it is softer than the steel barrel so the rifling will grab onto the bullet, but hard enough not to deform with normal use and in the barrel.
But then you find out that they are bad at killing humans.
My grandfather lived with a bullet in his foot for the majority of his life. When he passed he was cremated and my mom asked if she could keep the bullet, but apparently nothing makes it out of the cremation process. Whatever metal you have inside you is turned to ash as well.
Fun fact: cremation doesn’t completely burn up the human body. A certain amount of solid bone fragments remain, which are ground up. This almost entirely forms the “ashes”.
Assuming the bullet was lead (which melts at about a third of cremation fire temperatures), it likely ended up as little blobs and was then ground up. Your mother still has the bullet, it’s just in powder form now.
At high temperatures I believe iron will start to oxidize and “burn up”, will lead not do something similar?
I would suspect cremation temperatures could be high enough for lead boil off actually.
Made me look since I melt and pour lead doodads for fun.
Boiling point of lead: 1749C (Iron for comparison 2862C.)
Cremation (top of the range I found): 871
Some bits survive. E.g. an artificial hip.
yeah they don’t reach temps to melt titanium
Just got a .177 pellet cut out of my hand while having another procedure. Took years until I noticed it bothering me.
Got a femur full of deck screws and titanium plates, took 10-years for the pain to 100% wear off, but all that might as well not be there for all I can feel.