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 By Sylvia Carignan 
 
 An upcoming military policy, expected to dictate safer lead exposure levels, will follow a new wave of contamination cleanup efforts being carried out by the National Guard. 
 
 OSHA and the Department of Defense are reviewing their current limits for occupational lead exposure in the face of years-old data that shows the current limits are dangerously lax when it comes to workers and soldiers exposed to the metal. 
 
 According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s current standards, if workers could be exposed to airborne concentrations of lead of at least 30 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour workday, employers must monitor lead. 
 
 Employees whose blood lead level measures at or above 40 micrograms per deciliter must also be monitored as physicians have associated those levels with cognitive and behavioral impacts. 
 
 But a 2013 National Research Council report on Department of Defense personnel exposed to lead at firing ranges found that limit is unsafe. 
 
 “There is overwhelming evidence that the OSHA standard provides inadequate protection for DOD firing-range personnel and for any other worker populations covered by the general industry standard,” the report said. 
 
 Meanwhile, the National Guard has ordered the assessment and cleanup of lead dust in its indoor firing ranges. Until cleanup is complete, the National Guard has ordered the facilities remain vacant. 
 
 The Guard’s Dec. 6 order came on the heels of an 18-month investigation by The Oregonian newspaper, which found hundreds of armories across the country contaminated with dangerous levels of lead dust. 
 
 States are required to tell the National Guard by Jan. 31 what firing ranges they have, what condition they are in and whether cleanup has been completed. 
 
 Updating Standards 
 
 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends allowed blood lead levels for all adults be reduced to less than 10 micrograms per deciliter. 
 
 The 2013 National Research Council report that DOD funded found that lead exposure affects the birth weight and growth of fetuses in mothers with blood lead levels under 5 micrograms per deciliter, raising concerns as more women enter combat roles. 
 
 Lead exposure also can cause hypertension and cognitive dysfunction in adults. 
 
 “Because of the new information on health risks at these lower-range elevated (blood lead levels), the agency is exploring the possibility of modifying the lead standards in order to reduce the risk of significant health effects for the 1.5 million workers potentially exposed to lead,” said Mandy Kraft, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor. 
 
 A proposed OSHA rule ( RIN: 1218-AD10 ) is “exploring regulatory options to lower blood leads in affected workers,” but does not define a new safe range for lead exposure. 
 
 The Defense Department is working with OSHA and its research arm, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, to determine allowable levels of lead exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also is considering lowering its threshold for childhood blood lead levels, though the agency acknowledges no level of lead is safe for children. 
 
 Looking Forward 
 
 The Defense Department expects to issue its new blood lead levels policy first, followed by the airborne lead concentration policy in late 2017. The department has yet to issue its new safe range for exposure to the metal, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. James B. Brindle said. 
 
 According to Brindle, about 1,200 defense workers are annually monitored for blood-borne lead because of the potential of exposure in their workplaces. 
 
 About seven workers each year have blood lead levels that exceed OSHA’s allowances. 
 
 Historically, an average of 89 workers per year have had blood lead levels exceeding the standards under consideration for the department’s new policy. 
 
 “We expect the actual number of workers to be lower after the policy is fully implemented,” Brindle said. 
 
 For workplaces currently undergoing lead monitoring or cleanup, Brindle said it would be up to individual occupational health offices to determine whether cleanup needs to be re-done when the new OSHA and Department of Defense standards are released. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Sylvia Carignan at scarignan@bna.com 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Pearl at lpearl@bna.com 
 
 Copyright © 2017 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ||||| National Guard inaction exposes communities to lead 
 
 PART 1 
 
 In a former Montana National Guard armory where more than 20 workers got sick, lead-laced dust bunnies the size of tangerines clogged the ventilation system. 
 
 In two Oregon armories where parents unwittingly let infants crawl, the neurotoxin blanketed floors at levels as high as 10 times the federal safety standard. 
 
 In a Wisconsin armory classroom where pregnant women and mothers with infants learned about nutrition, the poisonous powder coated a desktop. 
 
 Hundreds of armories across the United States have been contaminated by dangerous amounts of lead dust, an 18-month investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. 
 
 The Defense Department and state National Guard officials knew about these toxic armories for nearly two decades but moved slowly to address the problem, leaving soldiers, civilian employees and children exposed, records and interviews show. 
 
 In Oregon alone, tens of thousands of people have spent time in armories covered in lead. 
 
 Armories in big cities and small towns have housed tearful deployments, joyful reunions and thousands of community events. They're civic landmarks, where part-time soldiers drilled one weekend a month and fired weapons at indoor shooting ranges. 
 
 Toxic Armories Download the series in PDF form 
 
 But the firearms emitted an insidious form of lead every time a bullet left the chamber. The National Guard's neglect allowed the dust to spread beyond the ranges, into common areas used by the public, including small children most at risk. 
 
 The National Guard's indoor firing ranges were supposed to be well-ventilated, cleaned regularly and equipped with air filters to prevent lead from escaping. But in armories from Washington state to Vermont, people tracked dust outside the ranges by foot. Ventilation systems sucked in lead, spreading it to public areas and offices, sometimes as far as roofs, sidewalks and the soil outside, according to inspection records. 
 
 
 
 The scope of the contamination is staggering. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Inspectors have found lead dust at alarming levels in armory gyms, drill halls, conference rooms, hallways, stairwells, kitchens, pantries, offices, bathrooms and a day care center, records and interviews show. 
 
 The neurotoxin contaminated coffee makers, ice makers, refrigerators, dishes, soldiers' uniforms, children's toys, medical supplies, water bottles, carpets, soda machines, bookshelves, fans, furniture, heaters, basketball backboards and a boxing bag. 
 
 Even a deli meat slicer. 
 
 The National Guard was put on notice about the lead problem in the 1990s. Guard officials pledged to identify which of their roughly 1,800 firing ranges were polluted, but they never followed through. 
 
 The Oregonian/OregonLive did what the Guard failed to do, obtaining more than 23,000 pages of public records from 41 states and building a database from scratch. The database of 1,304 current and former sites offers the nation's most comprehensive accounting of toxic armories. 
 
 Inspectors found lead in 424 armories in the past four years, or nearly 90 percent of the places for which results are available. In 192 of those contaminated buildings, inspectors found the toxic material outside the firing range. 
 
 
 
 More than 700 other armories were not inspected since 2012 despite requirements that officials test former ranges annually and active ranges every two years. 
 
 Most of the firing ranges are now closed. But the danger remains. The Guard converted hundreds of ranges into offices, locker rooms, storage areas, gymnasiums, classrooms and other uses without thoroughly cleaning the rooms first. 
 
 The extent of the contamination has largely been hidden from the public until now. 
 
 Just as alarming is the failure of federal and state officials to fix it when problems were first discovered. 
 
 Consider: 
 
 The National Guard knew its armories had a significant lead problem but allowed it to fester. Time after time, inspectors found lead hotspots at armories and urged the Guard to do something. And time after time, state military officials disregarded the advice. 
 
 The Pentagon's top watchdog pushed almost 20 years ago for a nationwide cleanup that didn't happen. The Defense Department inspector general documented lead spreading outside firing ranges in a dozen facilities in 1998. But the problem only got worse. 
 
 Even when states found dangerous levels of lead in armories, the National Guard didn't look further. In Montana, after the former Helena armory tested high, the Guard didn't bother to check its other buildings for three more years. Later inspections found lead in five other armories that once housed firing ranges. 
 
 The Guard botched cleanups. In places where lead was found, cleaning crews failed to ensure lead dust was completely removed. Contamination turned up years later in places that were purportedly lead-free. 
 
 Lead persisted in buildings long after their gun ranges fell silent. Laboratory testing commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive found problems at old Oregon armories that the state transferred to new owners more than 15 years ago. 
 
 The number of toxic armories is likely much higher than inspection records show. Eight states didn't release inspection results. And in states such as South Carolina, where inspectors found lead in 36 armories, the Guard took samples only from the firing range itself – not public areas. 
 
 The National Guard Bureau declined to answer questions for this story, saying for six months that a response was in the works. 
 
 But it did take action. In response to inquiries from The Oregonian/OregonLive, the National Guard's central office directed states to inspect every armory for lead and clean the contaminated ones. More than 1,000 armories nationally are undergoing testing as a result. Two states offered voluntary blood testing to their soldiers. Armories in seven states temporarily closed their doors to the public. 
 
 The current round of cleaning follows decades of sporadic and poorly executed initiatives to keep lead contamination at bay. All the while, children – whose developing bodies are the most vulnerable to lead's brain-damaging effects – were placed in harm's way. 
 
 
 
 Take the armory in Coos Bay, Oregon. Inspections there in 2006 and 2010 uncovered lead in the building's drill hall. Inspectors warned that children shouldn't be allowed near the toxic dust. 
 
 But the Oregon National Guard didn't keep kids out. 
 
 Dozens of Roseburg fifth-graders each year spread their sleeping bags on the floor in the same room where inspectors in 2006 found lead dust 650 times above the federal safety threshold. 
 
 Teacher Darin Lomica, who led the 10-year-olds from Roseburg's Melrose Elementary on annual field trips to study tide pools, said he had no idea his students had stayed in contaminated rooms until contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive. 
 
 Lomica and his students attended a final sleepover at the Coos Bay facility in May 2015. Emails show Oregon's top Guard leader at the time, Lt. Gen. Daniel Hokanson, had been notified a month earlier that the armory was one of the state's most toxic. 
 
 Inspectors found lead on every surface they checked. 
 
 "That is shocking," said Lomica, who also slept on the polluted floors. "They go home and put the pillow back on their bed. And they're going to be sleeping with those day-in and day-out." 
 
 The Oregon Military Department said in a written statement that "mistakes have been made" in its dealings with lead dust but that no one intentionally did anything wrong. The agency said it notified the school's principal after The Oregonian/OregonLive raised questions about the Coos Bay sleepover. 
 
 "We take the health and welfare of our personnel and our community very seriously," the statement said. 
 
 Across the country, other children have wrestled, danced, played volleyball and learned taekwondo in lead-contaminated rooms. States have rented out armories for baptisms, baby showers and wedding receptions that attracted thousands of children. Cub Scout groups brought the same kids in for meeting after meeting. 
 
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 When announcing armory closures, states have downplayed the dangers. 
 
 "It's nothing crazy. It's nothing new," a Michigan National Guard spokeswoman told a local TV station when contaminated armories closed there in early 2016. "It's not an immediate risk." 
 
 No amount of lead is safe in a child's body, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children age 6 and younger are the most vulnerable because their bodies are still developing. 
 
 Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C., said it's difficult to quantify the precise risk to a child who visits a contaminated armory just once. But frequent visits to a polluted armory could leave substantial levels of lead in the blood, he said. Parents who worked in the buildings might take lead home on clothing and expose their children. 
 
 They might never know it because lead can hurt kids without causing overt symptoms. Studies have found that children with even small amounts of lead in their blood permanently lose IQ points and face greater risks of behavioral and attention problems. 
 
 "These are hazardous environments for children and adults to be working in or doing other kinds of activities," Lanphear said. "They had extraordinarily high levels of lead that are not safe. Period." 
 
 The issue of lead dust in gun ranges gained attention in 2014 when The Seattle Times published an investigation about the dangers. The Times focused on privately owned commercial ranges. The Oregonian/OregonLive's reporting is the first to examine the nation's armories. 
 
 The problems in National Guard firing ranges stand out because armories have routinely doubled as community event centers that brought in countless young children. 
 
 
 
 And while The Times found federal workplace safety oversight lacking at private ranges, military facilities are largely exempt from that oversight. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no authority to investigate when soldiers are poisoned by lead. 
 
 The Guard's failures also put civilian workers at risk. Elevated lead levels have been detected in workers such as Mary Ann Dunwell. 
 
 
 
 Samples of her blood were still above normal a year after the Montana Department of Environmental Quality evacuated its employees from a former armory in Helena after discovering the toxic metal inside. 
 
 
 
 Dunwell said that while she worked in the building as the agency's spokeswoman, an itchy, crusty rash broke out around her eyes at least twice a year. She developed sinus headaches. She became irritable and nervous – "keyed up," she said – a condition that worsened the longer she spent in the building. 
 
 
 
 A cleaning crew peered inside the heating system and saw dust fly up when the workers tapped on the ductwork. Dunwell sat so close to a vent that she could feel the heat come on above her desk, where she ate lunch from home each day. 
 
 
 
 "I think I was eating lead dust," Dunwell said. 
 
 
 
 She said Guard officials gave the state "a polluted lemon" when the armory changed hands. 
 
 
 
 "How could they?" Dunwell said. "It was silently making people sick. It is negligence. We're paying dearly for it." 
 
 Put on notice 
 
 The National Guard traces its origins to the first organized colonial militia in Massachusetts in 1636. But the volunteer units generally weren't based in armories until the late 19th century, when social unrest demanded a standing force to keep peace. Portland got its first armory in 1888 after anti-Chinese riots swept the Pacific Northwest. 
 
 
 
 The Defense Department helped pay for upkeep and construction, but states were responsible for maintaining and overseeing the buildings. 
 
 
 
 Because the Guard needed a place for citizen-soldiers to qualify to shoot weapons, rain or shine, nearly every armory was equipped with an indoor firing range. 
 
 
 
 Whenever a soldier pulled the trigger, tiny bits of lead escaped. Lead in the bullet's explosive primer, which ignites gunpowder, vaporized with each strike of the hammer. More lead flaked off as the slug careened down the barrel and hit its target. 
 
 Guard officials became aware in the 1980s that firing ranges, often built in unventilated basements, posed lead hazards. 
 
 
 
 But it wasn't until 1998 that the Guard was given written notice that it needed to change. 
 
 
 
 The Defense Department's inspector general that year published an unprecedented look at the condition of National Guard armories and Army Reserve centers across the country. A team of investigators spent six months conducting interviews, reviewing safety inspections and personally visiting 21 indoor firing ranges. 
 
 
 
 Lorretta Swanson, one of the investigators, recalls quickly growing worried by what the team found: Soldiers and their families were being unnecessarily exposed to lead. 
 
 They concluded that senior National Guard leaders knew states were failing to clean contaminated ranges before repurposing them as kitchens, gyms and classrooms. In 12 facilities, lead had spread outside the firing ranges. 
 
 
 
 "I saw people tracking stuff all over," Swanson said in a recent interview. "I thought it was serious. I thought they'd pay attention to it. But in reality, they weren't." 
 
 Tell them what you think National Guard 
 
 Gen. Joseph Lengyel Lengyel is the Guard's top military leader. Public Affairs office: (703) 607-2584. Tweet Lengyel 
 
 Guard leaders didn't even know how many shooting ranges they had, much less which ones were contaminated. (The Guard's best guess, 15 years later, was more than 700 of its 1,800 ranges were polluted.) 
 
 
 
 Swanson heard horror stories from armories around the country. 
 
 
 
 Children had repeatedly played in sand in the back of firing ranges where lead bullets drop after hitting their targets. The sand is typically so contaminated that it is treated as hazardous waste. 
 
 
 
 Outside Baltimore, inspectors found exercise equipment and lockers inside a firing range that shooters still used. The inspectors designated the heavily contaminated room unsafe. Despite the warning, soldiers routinely unlocked the door to store personal belongings and to use the exercise equipment, which was covered in lead. 
 
 
 
 In Schenectady, New York, chemical defense masks were kept in a contaminated room. Lead spread to the kitchen. 
 
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 In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, medical supplies were stored on lead-covered shelves. 
 
 The scathing audit from Swanson's team drew a definitive commitment from the Guard. Its leaders set a Feb. 28, 2010, deadline for states to clean up the buildings and report back to the inspector general. 
 
 
 
 The problem, it seemed, would be solved. 
 
 Inexplicable failures 
 
 The Guard failed to achieve the simplest of goals after the 1998 audit. 
 
 
 
 Guard leaders responding to the inspector general's report vowed to inventory every firing range by 2003. Yet as of 2015, the Guard still couldn't say where they all were. A spokesman, Maj. Earl Brown, sent The Oregonian/OregonLive a list that accounted for the locations of just 201 ranges. That's barely 10 percent of the firing ranges Guard officials say they owned. 
 
 The Guard didn't heed the audit's warning about lead spreading. In the years that followed, documents show, ranges weren't cleaned as often as they were supposed to be. Soldiers swept up lead dust, sending it airborne, rather than vacuuming it with specialized equipment as they'd been instructed. Studies found that soldiers who cleaned the gun ranges and fired weapons in them had been exposed to more airborne lead than federal safety rules allow. 
 
 
 
 The sloppy maintenance had consequences. 
 
 
 
 Lead moved far beyond firing ranges, permeating ventilation systems and coating nearly every room in some armories, inspection reports show. The failure to contain the hazard wasn't limited to just a handful of locations. Similar lapses happened from Oregon to Maine. 
 
 National Guard guidelines called for every armory with a former firing range to be inspected annually. But hundreds went years without being tested for lead because the Guard didn't set aside enough money. 
 
 
 
 Firing ranges weren't the only factor. Deteriorating lead paint, residue from weapons cleaning and the use of leaded fuel also left the toxic metal behind. But inspections show that the ranges were the most common source. 
 
 When lead was found, Guard officials responded slowly. 
 
 In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder this year deployed the National Guard to deliver clean water to residents of Flint, where public officials allowed dangerous levels of lead in the water system. 
 
 
 
 Yet Michigan National Guard officers let months pass while residents continued to use armories where 2015 inspection reports showed dangerous volumes of lead dust. One report explicitly warned the Michigan Guard to keep the public out. 
 
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 Not until January, after The Oregonian/OregonLive started asking questions, did the Michigan Guard order 26 of its armories closed for cleaning. 
 
 
 
 Michigan was not unique in leaving armories open after the discovery of widespread contamination. The Oregon National Guard also failed to close facilities as soon as lead was found. Neither state has an explanation for why officials allowed the public into contaminated buildings. 
 
 
 
 "I can't tell you why the previous personnel didn't stop that," said Capt. Corissa Barton, a Michigan Guard spokeswoman. 
 
 
 
 "I'm not sure I can really provide you much of an answer in terms of why it took the time that it did," said Roy Swafford, the Salem official in charge of maintaining Oregon's armories. 
 
 
 
 But inspection records show that top Guard officers repeatedly were warned to shut buildings to the public. 
 
 
 
 One inspector, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said he knew lead was being tracked throughout the buildings but was powerless to do anything except sound repeated alarms. 
 
 
 
 "I wouldn't take my kid out to an armory," the inspector said. 
 
 Tell them what you think Defense Secretary Ashton Carter Carter is the country's top civilian military leader. Tweet Carter E-mail Carter 
 
 Guard officials in 2013 estimated the problem rendered 2 million square feet of building space unusable. That's roughly 35 football fields. Much of the contaminated space was used anyway. 
 
 The Guard's central office determined in 2006 that 399 armories, spread around 26 states, had brought in kids for events. Guard officials didn't identify which buildings were polluted, but told states to make sure children weren't exposed. 
 
 The potential for harm was worrisome. The Guard found that children under 7 years old used 44 of the armories at least twice a week for three hours a day. Children of all ages routinely used 200 armories. 
 
 The Guard had to warn states not to keep infant formula and children's toys in areas possibly contaminated by lead. Later inspections in Oregon, Ohio and South Dakota found toys stored on polluted shelves and floors, records show. 
 
 Tricycles and balls for a daycare were kept in a polluted former range in Thermopolis, Wyoming. In Milbank, South Dakota, the Guard didn't fully decontaminate the armory's firing range before converting it to storage for the adjoining high school's gym equipment. 
 
 
 
 In the last 30 years, state Guard units converted at least 200 firing ranges into rooms where inspectors later found lead, records show. 
 
 In at least seven states, old ranges became locker rooms with lead-contaminated lockers. 
 
 
 
 Civilian workers moved into one decommissioned facility, spending day after day in offices that turned out to be polluted. 
 
 
 
 More than one got sick. 
 
 Montana's sick building 
 
 Some days, David Bowers arrived home after work, weight of the world on his shoulders, took more pills for the sinus infections that never went away and sighed a question to his wife. 
 
 
 
 Why do I feel so tired all the time? 
 
 
 
 Every workday, his eyes hurt. His head ached. By afternoon, unrelenting fatigue set in. The environmental scientist couldn't figure out why. 
 
 
 
 Bowers wasn't alone. 
 
 
 
 Coworkers at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality developed similar health problems after the agency moved into Helena's old art deco armory in 2003. 
 
 
 
 Steve Opp, an abandoned mines cleanup specialist, couldn't shake the exhaustion that dogged him for years. "I basically felt sick, except when I was in the field at abandoned mine sites," Opp said. His hands tingled inexplicably, bad enough that he got two surgeries. 
 
 When employees went home at night or were on vacation, they started feeling normal again. Then they returned to the World War II-era armory on a street named Last Chance Gulch, and the mysterious symptoms flared up. 
 
 
 
 Managers told them they just needed to get outside and take walks during the workday. 
 
 
 
 But medical screenings revealed deeper concerns behind the men's symptoms. 
 
 
 
 Opp and Bowers received annual workplace blood tests because their jobs required them to spend time at hazardous waste sites. 
 
 
 
 Tests showed the volume of lead in their blood, an indicator of recent exposure, increased to slightly above average as they spent more time in the building. Blood samples also showed high levels of a compound that can indicate chronic exposure. 
 
 
 
 Bowers spent hours researching potential causes of his health problems. Something finally clicked: The old indoor firing range. The space was now used as storage. 
 
 
 
 The Guard had cleaned the range in 1994, about six years before handing the armory over to the state. 
 
 But documents detailing the cleaning, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a state records request, show the Guard didn't ensure its own procedures were followed. Guard guidelines prohibited power-washing because the jet of water could drive lead deeper into the walls and floors. The range was power-washed anyway. The range was deemed clean without all the required tests. 
 
 The initial tenant to occupy the Helena armory after the military moved out, the Montana Revenue Department, reported workers suffering severe fatigue, dizziness, rashes, headaches, depression and chronic sinus infections. An inspector recommended a top-to-bottom cleaning of the dusty ventilation system. 
 
 Bowers had read the 1998 inspector general's report flagging the Guard's failures to control lead dust. He also knew his workplace did not seem clean. Dust used to hang so thick in the armory that it sparkled in the morning light. "Like walking into a barn," he said. 
 
 He asked state officials to test for lead. They were reluctant, saying the old range wasn't a likely source of problems. 
 
 "I don't really think there is anything involved with the shooting range," a state facilities manager told the Helena Independent Record newspaper in October 2012. "We have these kinds of indoor air quality concerns in quite a few of our buildings. It just so happened to be a shooting range in there." 
 
 The testing Bowers sought finally occurred in October 2013. Inspectors found so much lead throughout the building's ventilation system that 98 workers, including Bowers, were immediately evacuated. The highest lead level was 64 times above Montana's safety goal. 
 
 When the state brought in Michael Kosnett, a University of Colorado Denver doctor with expertise in lead exposure, he concluded most workers weren't at risk. But people who used two rooms where lead dust was found may have sustained more exposure, he wrote. 
 
 The areas that Kosnett identified included Room 121A, in the dank basement people called the dungeon, where Opp frequently researched the histories of abandoned mines. Bowers sporadically visited the other room identified as hazardous, part of the converted shooting range. 
 
 Tell them what you think Rep. Vicky Hartzler, 
 
 R-Mo. Hartzler is chairwoman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. (202) 225-2876 Tweet Hartzler Contact Hartzler 
 
 Dana Headapohl, a Missoula occupational health doctor who examined Opp and other armory occupants, said she didn't see evidence of irreversible harm. She said lead wasn't the building's only problem. Some symptoms workers described could have been caused by other contaminants inside, including mold. But the lead exposure could've been prevented. 
 
 
 
 "What happened was avoidable," Headapohl said. "The DEQ knew what the building had been used for previously and could've assured it was properly evaluated and cleaned up." 
 
 "Cleaned up" doesn't mean finished 
 
 The nation's legacy of toxic armories will linger as long as the buildings stand. 
 
 Cleanings continue across the country. The National Guard in September 2015 again ordered states to inventory their armories with firing ranges. The Guard instructed states to inspect every armory for lead and keep the public out of buildings that tested high. But the Guard did not set a deadline or announce any financial commitment to ensure the order was followed. 
 
 Tell them what you think Sen. James Inhofe, 
 
 R-Okla. Inhofe is the top returning Republican on Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support. (202) 224-4721 Tweet Inhofe Contact Inhofe 
 
 It's unclear how much a one-time cleaning would cost. Ohio spent $3 million to clean its armories last year. Oregon estimates that cleaning and converting its indoor gun ranges will cost $21.6 million. 
 
 
 
 Even if they can find the money to pay for all the work, Guard officials everywhere will need to recheck the armories – every year, unless the buildings are torn down – to ensure lead doesn't re-emerge, as it has in cleaning after cleaning. 
 
 In Montana, David Bowers has recovered from his fatigue and other ailments since leaving the contaminated armory in 2013. But he remains frustrated about the experience. 
 
 "Our air was a toxic soup," Bowers said. "It had mold in it, it had metals in it. We were in a sick building. That building was never meant to be an office building." 
 
 The Montana Guard, even when presented with clear evidence that the Helena armory still had lead, failed to inspect other armories with firing ranges that the Guard said it had cleaned the same year. 
 
 The buildings were finally tested in November 2015, in response to The Oregonian/OregonLive's inquiries. 
 
 
 
 Sure enough, five turned up contaminated, despite the earlier scrubbing: Butte, Sidney, Glasgow, Hamilton and Lewistown. 
 
 
 
 Montana Guard Maj. Christopher Lende said his agency is currently looking for money to pay for a new cleanup. 
 
 Mary Ann Dunwell, the former Montana environmental worker who got sick, went on to win election to the Montana Legislature. 
 
 
 
 Her lead level, the highest measured at the Helena armory, was still at 8 micrograms per deciliter a year after leaving. That's enough to decrease kidney function, raise blood pressure and create tremors in the hand, according to a sweeping federal review of lead research. A child with that much bloodborne lead would lose an average of six IQ points, studies have found. 
 
 
 
 Dunwell still worries about the long-term health effects from her lead exposure. She has pushed a bill that would require government agencies to test new buildings for contamination before allowing workers to occupy them. The bill hasn't gotten out of committee. 
 
 
 
 Lorretta Swanson, the Defense Department investigator who identified widespread problems at Guard armories in 1998, moved to another federal agency after finishing the audit. She didn't know what became of its recommendations. 
 
 Neither the inspector general nor U.S. Army officials could produce a single page of documents when The Oregonian/OregonLive asked to see how the recommendations were addressed. 
 
 Bridget Serchak, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said the report had been closed. 
 
 
 
 Contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Swanson was flabbergasted. 
 
 
 
 "I've never in my life heard of someone closing a report until they had proof it was accomplished," she said. 
 
 
 
 Swanson was seven years into her career in federal service when the report was released. She retired in September without anyone heeding her team's call to make the nation's armories safe. 
 
 
 
 — Rob Davis ||||| Lead poisoning is a major threat at America’s shooting ranges, perpetuated by owners who’ve repeatedly violated laws even after workers have fallen painfully ill. 
 
 A confused 38-year-old father in Kentucky rarely crawled out of bed. 
 
 A conservation volunteer in Iowa lost feeling in his hands and feet. 
 
 A 5-year-old girl in South King County doubled over in pain and vomited. 
 
 The cause of their suffering: lead poisoning. The source: dirty gun ranges. 
 
 Indoor and outdoor, public and private, gun ranges dot the national landscape like bullet holes riddling a paper target, as the popularity of shooting has rocketed to new heights with an estimated 40 million recreational shooters annually. 
 
 But a hidden risk lies within almost all of America’s estimated 10,000 gun ranges. When shooters fire guns with lead-based ammunition, they spread lead vapor and dust, insidious toxins. 
 
 Thousands of people, including workers, shooters and their family members, have been contaminated at shooting ranges due to poor ventilation and contact with lead-coated surfaces, a Seattle Times investigation has found. 
 
 Washington Department of Labor and Industries 
 
 Those most at risk are employees who work around firearms, unknowingly inhaling lead-tinged dust and fumes as they instruct customers and clean shooting ranges of spent ammunition. Lead exposure can cause an array of health problems — from nausea and fatigue to organ damage, mental impairment and even death. 
 
 Even those who’ve never stepped inside a gun range have become sick. Employees have carried lead residue into their homes on their skin, clothes, shoes and work gear, inadvertently contaminating family members, including children, who are the most vulnerable to lead’s debilitating health effects. 
 
 For the public, shooting firearms is the most common way of getting lead poisoning outside of work, according to national statistics. 
 
 Through documents, interviews and a first-of-its-kind analysis of occupational lead-monitoring data, The Times has found reckless shooting-range owners who’ve repeatedly violated workplace-safety laws with no regard for workers who became sick. Other owners and operators were ignorant of the dangers posed by lead. 
 
 By law, owners are responsible for protecting employees from lead-polluted workplaces by following rules and regulations on air quality, surface contamination, safety gear and various other standards. Yet state and federal regulators are doing little to make certain gun ranges put such protections in place. 
 
 Few commercial shooting ranges are inspected Scroll over the states to discover more about inspections, lead-related violations and fines between 2004 and 2013. Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration; state Department of Labor and Industries. Data include failure-to-abate violations and penalties. Penalty amounts as of September. Range-inspection data (PDF) Download inspection data (CSV) Garland Potts / The Seattle Times 
 
 The nation has an estimated 6,000 commercial indoor and outdoor gun ranges, but only 201 have been inspected in the past decade, according to a Times analysis of federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records. Of those inspected, 86 percent violated at least one lead-related standard, the analysis found. 
 
 Lead exposure can cause a range of health problems — from nausea and fatigue to organ damage, mental impairment and death. 
 
 Places like Manchester Firing Line Range in New Hampshire, Target World in Ohio, Top Brass Sports in Tennessee and the Sharp Shooter in Texas each had more than 20 lead-related violations. 
 
 Of the 10 commercial ranges inspected in Washington, nine had at least one lead violation. 
 
 OSHA typically doesn’t examine a gun range unless it receives a blood-test report that shows an employee already has been overexposed to lead or unless someone complains. In states such as Washington and California, authorities knew about workers with severe lead poisoning, but failed to inspect the shooting ranges that employed them. 
 
 In 14 states, federal and state occupational agencies didn’t inspect a single commercial gun range from 2004 to 2013, an analysis of OSHA records found. 
 
 When caught, gun-range owners face few consequences for failing to protect their workers. Fines are reduced. And owners are allowed to keep ranges open while appealing their cases, which can take several years and put employees and customers at continued risk. 
 
 Washington state and federal workplace regulators have the power to temporarily close a lead-polluted shooting range to protect workers from exposure to high amounts of lead, but have never done so. 
 
 Several thousand other indoor and outdoor gun ranges in America — most of them casually operated by volunteer-led clubs and sports organizations with little knowledge of lead safety — don’t even have to follow OSHA regulations. They aren’t subject to any scrutiny because they have no employees. 
 
 Publicly, the National Rifle Association (NRA) dismisses contentions by health officials that lead is a widespread health and safety problem at shooting ranges. “The issue of lead problems for indoor ranges is extremely rare,” said Susan Recce, an NRA official. To their members, the lobbying group encourages owners to clean up their ranges to avoid inviting government scrutiny. 
 
 But research by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which analyzes occupational hazards for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shows lead is a hidden danger. 
 
 Watch how lead escapes a semi-automatic pistol Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times 
 
 Lead exposure at gun ranges is “a serious problem and we think it could be quite widespread,” said Dr. Elana Page, medical officer for NIOSH. 
 
 The risk isn’t limited to range employees, Page added. 
 
 “Some firing ranges cater to children, they have birthday parties and special events,” she said. “I think it’s really important that people are aware they can have significant exposure at a firing range, even for members of the general public.” 
 
 The problem of lead exposure need not be part of the debate raging over gun rights in America, said Kentucky firearms instructor Colleene Barnett, who suffered from lead poisoning. 
 
 “We need people to educate folks,” she said. “The last thing you need is to stop shooting — and for people to hold lead against shooting as a sport.” 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 A heavy diagnosis 
 
 “Educate yourself and know the risks — it’s not just bullets you need to watch out for.” James Maddox, former gun-range manager in Kentucky 
 
 James Maddox, a former gun-range manager in Kentucky, talks about himself as two different men: the jovial, hardworking man before lead poisoning, and the reclusive, weakened man after. 
 
 “I wish I could just show you guys the type of person I was,” he said, with tears streaming down his face. 
 
 For about a year starting in 2006, Maddox and his wife worked at Bluegrass Indoor Range in Louisville. 
 
 Like many shooting-range workers, Maddox knew little about lead and its damaging capabilities. Daily, he inhaled airborne lead while managing the range and gun shop. Nightly, he swept up casings from spent ammunition in the 12 firing lanes, pushing a broom and kicking up more lead dust. The toxin landed on his skin and sank into his pores. Every breath pushed the poison further into his lungs, blood and bones. 
 
 He complained to owner Winfield Underwood that catch bins at the end of shooting lanes were overflowing with spent lead bullets, the ventilation system didn’t work and workers needed protective gear. Inspectors later discovered the air vents didn’t even have filters. 
 
 “It was just circulating the lead air,” said Maddox, who earned $9 an hour. 
 
 Kentucky Labor Cabinet 
 
 After working at the Louisville range about six months, Maddox, a hefty 38-year-old man, dropped 180 pounds. He also lost sensation in his fingers and toes. His head throbbed, his thinking slowed and he couldn’t remember birthdays. He had no sex drive. 
 
 “It just feels like someone unplugged me from the wall and I just lost all my power,” he said. 
 
 His doctor’s diagnosis: lead poisoning from the gun range. 
 
 A February 2007 blood test showed he had a dangerous level of lead with 68 micrograms per deciliter — more than 56 times the average adult level of 1.2. “Your organs could start shutting down,” he recalled his doctor telling him. 
 
 The CDC states lead causes health problems like organ damage at as low as 10 micrograms, though symptoms rarely appear. 
 
 But OSHA’s 36-year-old regulations say employees can have up to six times that amount of lead in their blood before being removed from the work area. The Times found many employees who’d already suffered significant health problems before reaching that threshold. 
 
 Despite the CDC’s concern, OSHA has yet to adopt more stringent lead regulations to protect workers. 
 
 “OSHA recognizes that exposure to lead is a significant hazard and that our lead standard is outdated,” said David Michaels, an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor. Changing the standard, he added, is highly complex and can take more than seven years. 
 
 James Maddox 
 
 Maddox, who spent several weeks in bed, returned to work after he assumed Underwood had fixed the lead problems. But when Maddox found not much had changed, he started to alert pregnant women and kids they shouldn’t enter the range because of lead exposure. 
 
 Maddox’s wife, who worked throughout the business, also developed elevated levels of lead. They both had enough and quit. 
 
 “You claimed to care so much for me and my family and you did NOTHING to protect us from this or even try to resolve any further exposure or supply us with the proper safety equipment,” Maddox wrote in his April 2007 resignation letter. 
 
 He has advice for range workers: “Educate yourself and know the risks — it’s not just bullets you need to watch out for.” 
 
 Underwood, of Lexington, couldn’t be reached for comment. 
 
 Kentucky Labor Cabinet, the state’s workplace-safety agency, inspected Underwood’s range several times and determined that he had overexposed his employees to lead on a daily basis. The agency hit him with dozens of violations and $461,400 in fines, the highest total amount imposed against a U.S. gun range in the past decade. 
 
 But in a later settlement with Underwood, the Kentucky Labor Cabinet lowered the fine to $7,200 because of “financial hardship.” 
 
 As with other industries, OSHA and state occupational agencies often reduce fines for gun-range owners, sometimes because they are cooperative or they show an inability to pay. Nationally, the agencies initially fined gun ranges a total of almost $2 million for violations in the past decade, but reduced it to less than half that amount. For ranges that were fined, OSHA reduced the amounts in two out of every three inspections, a Times analysis found. 
 
 In the Bluegrass case, Underwood paid the fine in 2012. But he didn’t fix all the lead violations, which dated to 2007. Under federal and state law, he didn’t have to because he filed an appeal. 
 
 Kentucky Labor Cabinet 
 
 Even though blood tests and sampling of air and surfaces show dire hazards and widespread lead contamination, shooting ranges can avoid costly cleanups and paying fines until the administrative appeal is resolved. 
 
 During 2010 congressional testimony, Michaels said the appeal process is flawed, pointing to 33 cases in which workers in various industries died while employers contested violations and fines. 
 
 “The only situation worse than a worker being injured or killed on the job by a senseless and preventable hazard is having a second worker felled by the same hazard,” Michaels said. 
 
 Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and other lawmakers proposed bills in 2013 to require abatement of serious hazards during an appeal, but the bills are languishing in committees. 
 
 Evan Satterwhite, director of Kentucky’s occupational safety and health compliance at the time, said “it’s not something we like,” but he could do little while Underwood’s appeal dragged on. 
 
 “We’re all for the Second Amendment, but he was deceiving employees while exposing them to an unhealthy chemical,” Satterwhite said. 
 
 Marcus Yam / The Seattle Times 
 
 Trouble from the start in Kent 
 
 Of the nation’s estimated 6,000 commercial gun ranges, only 201 have been inspected in the past decade. Of those inspected, 86 percent violated at least one lead-related standard. 
 
 From the moment the doors opened at the new Champion Arms indoor shooting range in Kent, in October 2005, co-owner Steve Wangsness knew airborne lead was going to be a problem, Washington state records show. 
 
 The ventilation system specifically designed for the custom-built, 10-lane range was supposed to push air containing lead dust and bullet fragments away from shooters. Filtered vents at the back of the range were then expected to suck the bad air out of the building. 
 
 But the exhaust system didn’t work. Instead, it blew toxic dust clouds back on unwitting shooters — and into the retail areas of the business, where workers spent most of their day. 
 
 Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times 
 
 “This system was so screwed up, it’s remarkable they could have gotten the doors actually locked at night,” Cheryl Christian, a state Labor and Industries expert on lead issues, would later remark. "…It would have been a wind tunnel out the front door in the wrong direction.” 
 
 Wangsness and co-owner Maria Geiss sparred with the building’s landlord over the faulty system, eventually filing a lawsuit. Still, they kept Champion Arms open for business, exposing their employees, customers and an on-site resident to the dirty gun range. 
 
 In December 2005, an unpaid gunsmith and maintenance worker living at the range got his blood checked and found high levels of lead. Triggered by a complaint, an L&I inspector showed up in July 2006 to investigate. 
 
 Air sampling showed Champion Arms workers were being exposed to airborne lead above safe standards. Using testing wipes that measure lead on surfaces, the inspector also found lead dust more than 115 times the recommended amounts on a soft-drink machine. Lead also contaminated the employee conference table and the floor of a shooting booth. 
 
 Lead dangers in Champion Arms Champion Arms indoor shooting range was described as the worst gun range for lead exposure that Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries had ever seen. The Kent gun range garnered dozens of violations for lead exposure and other safety problems during inspections in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2013. Descriptions are based on the 2006 inspection. The permissible level of airborne lead for an employee over an 8-hour period is 50 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg/m3). The acceptable level of lead on surfaces in the workplace is 200 micrograms per square-foot (mcg/foot2). Source: Washington Labor and Industries. This illustration is based on the current layout of Champion Arms. Some features may have changed since 2006. Thomas Wilburn and Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times 
 
 Children poisoned when parents track lead home Toxic lead isn’t always confined within the cinder-block walls of America’s shooting ranges, and sometimes its victims are those most vulnerable to its hazards. Children who’ve never set foot inside a gun range have been poisoned by lead tracked home by parents and others who worked or shot there. Health officials have documented such “take home” cases from Alaska to New Hampshire. Here in Auburn, for example, a subcontractor who worked on construction at Wade’s Eastside Guns, a shooting range, unknowingly contaminated his 5-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. A trail of lead coated his vehicle, work clothes and home. At least one child of another laborer on the same 2012 construction project at Wade’s also suffered lead exposure, health officials found. In all, blood levels for the three exposed children ranged from 6 to 11 micrograms per deciliter. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sets a reference level of 5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children with elevated blood-lead levels. Although it’s toxic to everyone, lead poses the greatest risk to unborn babies and children. “No safe blood-lead level in children has been identified,” according to the CDC. “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention and academic achievement. And effects of lead exposure cannot be corrected.” Lead-based paint in old homes is still the most common way children get overexposed to lead. In California, one of the worst “take home” cases took place about a decade ago, when a worker helping to dismantle a gun range showed high levels of lead in his blood. State health officials tracked the exposure to four more workers who not only had lead poisoning but had also contaminated their homes and families. In all, one spouse and nine children — ages 18 months to 12 years — had lead levels in their blood that ranged from 13 to 36. “The youngest child had the highest” blood-lead level, health officials later reported. In 2011, a range worker overexposed to lead at the Bullet Hole near Omaha, Neb., tracked it home and contaminated his 1-year-old. Blood tests showed the baby had 20 micrograms per deciliter of lead — a level that can cause brain and nerve damage in children. Health officials found severe contamination on the baby’s car seat and on the man’s work shoes. OSHA has inspected the range twice, found nine violations and fined it a total of $8,123. Owner Wes Ewasiuk had no comment. Joseph Graziano, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who has studied lead exposure, said children with lead poisoning suffer in two ways: “They are paying a price in terms of their childhood development and their motor functions, and we’ve learned over time that children who had lead exposure early pay a price later in life … with chronic kidney disease.” Read more ▾ 
 
 L&I learned the range’s owners had no training about safe range operations. One of the owners even used a leaf blower to clean up, and the range employed a pregnant worker. Women can have miscarriages when overexposed to lead. 
 
 The inspector cited Champion Arms for 15 violations, 13 of them deemed serious, meaning they posed a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm to workers. Fearing Champion Arms would put workers and the public at risk if it stayed open, officials with L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) debated whether to shut it down. They could issue an “order and notice of immediate restraint” that forces a business to close until it fixes its problems. 
 
 DOSH has issued more than 150 such orders since September 2004, though never for a gun range. 
 
 “This is the worse (sic) indoor firing range DOSH has investigated certainly recently and potentially ever,” Christian wrote later in an email to a state lawyer. 
 
 But L&I management decided not to close it and couldn’t explain why. 
 
 “As a public range with the potential for underage kids using it in addition to adults, in retrospect I wonder at that decision,” Christian’s email said. 
 
 In all, Champion’s violations could have resulted in fines up to $31,500. But L&I fined it only $11,200, cutting the owners a break in part for being cooperative. 
 
 But the owners stopped the clock when they contested the violations to the state Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, as is their right. Meanwhile, the range stayed open to the public. 
 
 Finally, in October 2007, Champion Arms agreed to the state’s violations and penalties. The range was placed on a six-month payment plan for the fines and promised to fix any outstanding violations in 15 days. 
 
 L&I allows businesses to essentially police themselves by submitting an “Employer Certification of Hazards Corrected” form. 
 
 Several months after the settlement, Geiss declared in writing that all violations had been fixed. By then, the range already had missed payments. 
 
 But L&I didn’t immediately check on whether the range had corrected its problems. In May 2008, inspectors received a report that another Champion Arms employee’s blood had tested high for lead. Only then did L&I follow up to see if the range really had fixed the hazards. 
 
 Inspectors were afraid to return to Champion Arms. “I have a concern about entering this location,” a supervisor said by email. “There is no evidence that the ventilation system has been fixed.” 
 
 Later that month, inspectors again found rampant violations, including problems uncorrected since the 2006 inspection. Lead dust still contaminated the range’s air; table and counter tops still remained coated in lead; and employees still lacked the required protective gear. 
 
 In cases in which an employer knowingly files false information about correcting workplace violations, L&I can pursue criminal penalties. Despite finding that seven of the violations Geiss claimed to have fixed were still uncorrected, L&I issued only more civil penalties. 
 
 L&I cited Champion Arms for 15 violations in November 2008, including six “Failure to Abate Serious” citations, and fined it $42,400. 
 
 Once again, Champion filed an appeal in December 2008, halting the state’s orders to fix the problems and pay the fines. 
 
 During the year it took to resolve the appeal, the business kept operating. On Dec. 31, 2009, an industrial appeals judge affirmed all 15 violations and the original $42,400 fine against the shooting range. 
 
 Again, a gun-range manager guaranteed in November 2010 that Champion Arms had finally corrected all outstanding violations. But a few weeks later, after that same manager had been fired, he complained to L&I that Champion still was exposing its employees to lead at unsafe levels. L&I later issued $10,600 in fines and 10 more violations. 
 
 After its fourth inspection of Champion Arms in October 2013, L&I cited it for four more violations, including failing to fully institute a lead-training program for employees — one of the most basic precautions on the books. 
 
 Through a manager, Geiss declined to comment. Wangsness died earlier this year. 
 
 In 2012, Washington became only the second state to require employers to correct serious workplace hazards during an appeal. L&I pointed to Champion Arms as an example when it asked lawmakers for the change. 
 
 Washington’s shooting ranges The vast majority of ranges have never been inspected, because their non-commercial status puts them outside of L&I; jurisdiction. Of the 10 commercial ranges inspected by the state between 2004 and June 2014, nine had at least one lead-related violation. Click on the dots to learn about the state’s gun ranges, and range inspections between 2004 and June 2014. Inspected by L&I; 
 
 Inspected by L&I; Subject to inspection by L&I; 
 
 Subject to inspection by L&I; Clubs, nonprofits and other ranges that might not be subject to inspection Sources: Occupational Health and Safety Administration; state Department of Labor and Industries; state Department of Fish and Wildlife; Seattle Times research Thomas Wilburn / The Seattle Times 
 
 Lack of scrutiny 
 
 From 2004 through May 2013, Washington state’s lead-monitoring system received notice of 59 workers with high lead levels working at nine gun ranges. Of the nine, the state inspected four. 
 
 Six years ago, federal OSHA set a new bar for workplace regulators to inspect a business if an employee had elevated blood-lead levels of 25 micrograms or higher. The national emphasis program specifically included shooting ranges. 
 
 Several states, including North Carolina, Kentucky and Alaska, adopted the program. But Alaska workplace-safety officials didn’t implement it. 
 
 At least four range workers in that state tested above 25 micrograms. But public-health officials didn’t share those test results with regulators because they weren’t aware of the program. 
 
 “But now that you mention it,” public-health manager Ali Hamade told The Times, “it’s not a bad idea.” 
 
 Some states, like Washington, didn’t know about OSHA’s lead-emphasis program. 
 
 In an interview last month, Anne Soiza, L&I’s top official for the agency’s compliance division, expressed ignorance when asked about OSHA’s ongoing program. 
 
 “I don’t know what the directive says,” said Soiza, adding she “wasn’t here” when OSHA sent it out. 
 
 L&I has collected thousands of blood test results for lead through its Washington State Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance program. 
 
 It received notice of 59 employees at nine gun ranges who had lead levels of 25 micrograms or higher in their blood from 2004 through May 2013, according to a Times analysis of a previously unreleased L&I blood-test database. The tally is likely an undercount because workers weren’t required to identify their employer. 
 
 Of those nine ranges, L&I inspected four over that time. 
 
 L&I has no requirement to alert inspectors of high blood-lead tests, regardless of the level. 
 
 The effects of lead poisoning 
 
 The officials said referrals to inspect were made case by case, based on various guidelines. 
 
 But blood-lead monitoring officials failed at least once to follow agency guidelines about when to refer “critical situations” to inspectors. In a 2008 case, two employees at a Bellevue gun range had lead levels so high they were removed from work, as required. 
 
 Todd Schoonover, L&I’s manager of the blood-monitoring system, declined to comment on his group’s referral decisions. 
 
 The state’s lack of scrutiny helped set the stage for what public-health officials now say is the country’s largest reported occupational lead exposure at an indoor gun range. 
 
 During the 2008 lead-exposure case, six employees at Wade’s Eastside Guns and Bellevue Indoor Range showed lead poisoning in tests sent to the blood-monitoring program, but results weren’t passed on to L&I inspectors. The agency didn’t inspect Wade’s until 2010, after another cluster of workers tested high for lead. 
 
 In 2012, 46 construction and range workers were overexposed to lead during a project to add a second floor to the gun range. As a result of this case, L&I for the first time has started to compile a list of gun ranges in the state and to inspect more of them. 
 
 Officials also said the agency will review workers’ blood-lead levels at 25 micrograms, to determine if L&I will investigate. 
 
 Kentucky Labor Cabinet 
 
 Lead-free bullets offer solution, but face industry pushback Health experts say there’s one surefire way to prevent lead poisoning at shooting ranges: Get the lead out. “As long as they’re still using lead bullets, they’re creating a hazard,” said Dr. James Dahlgren, a Los Angeles-based physician who has treated and studied toxic chemical exposures since 1971. In recent years, manufacturers have marketed lead-free ammunition made with copper or copper alloys for hunting and target shooting. But ammo made of lead — a dense, malleable and relatively cheap metal — remains commonly used. And the leading shooting organization persistently fights proposals to ban it, contending efforts to do so amount to backdoor gun control. Health officials in several states have alerted the public and workers about the risks of lead at shooting ranges, but an official for the National Rifle Association recently told The Seattle Times such contamination cases are isolated. “In terms of lead being some kind of significant problem or a problem affecting a good majority of ranges, I’m not aware of it,” said Susan Recce, the NRA’s director of conservation, wildlife and natural resources. The toxic hazards of lead have been known and debated for centuries, though reducing widespread use of the remarkably practical but deadly metal historically has been slow to occur. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began phasing lead out of gasoline in the 1970s, and it banned the manufacture and use of lead in paint in 1978. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s ban on using lead shot for hunting waterfowl took effect nationwide in 1991. Last year, after decades of controversy, California became the first state to pass a law prohibiting lead in hunting ammunition, after studies concluded endangered condors were dying from lead poisoning after consuming bullet fragments in carrion felled by hunters. The NRA has remained a vocal opponent to California’s restrictions on hunting ammo. It has also challenged suggestions that lead should be eliminated from ammunition used in recreational shooting, contending that’s unnecessary. But for decades, the NRA has invested heavily in protecting and expanding gun ranges by seeking to improve their overall operations and combating lead problems. The group has drafted its “Range Source Book,” a 627-page document that details proper construction and maintenance for safe gun ranges, including lead management. The NRA also holds annual conferences for range owners and provides a national network of technical advisers to assist them, and it offers grants to help fund shooting ranges. Recce noted lead ammunition consistently provides better affordability, shooting accuracy and stopping power than its lead-free alternatives. She added that good housekeeping and proper ventilation offer “a simple solution” for dealing with lead exposure issues in ranges. About 350 range operators attended the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s lead-management and OSHA-compliance workshops in the past year. The trade group for the firearm industry also started a program in 2013 that conducts mock audits similar to OSHA’s at shooting ranges and recommends changes. About 40 ranges have paid $2,500 for the program. David Dorman, a professor of toxicology at North Carolina State University who studied lead exposures, said more public awareness is the key to changing shooters’ perceptions. They will start to protect themselves much like wearing earplugs to prevent hearing loss in firing ranges. “It took a while, now you don’t go to a range without seeing people wearing ear protection,” he said. Read more ▾ 
 
 Lax regulation 
 
 Federal OSHA officials can’t say how many gun ranges have been inspected nationwide, because they can’t track them. Ranges have registered themselves under such business categories as “all other amusement and recreational industries,” which include bowling alleys and soccer clubs, and “sporting goods stores.” One range claimed to be a shoe store, another a locksmith. 
 
 OSHA handles workplace oversight for most states, but 21 states enforce their own occupational safety and health programs that typically mirror federal regulations. Yet whether under OSHA’s or state jurisdiction, regulation of gun ranges is lax. 
 
 Alaska, Iowa and Louisiana are among 14 states that have not inspected a commercial gun range in the past 10 years. 
 
 Even when OSHA, the nation’s largest workplace-safety enforcer, does take strong action, it sometimes has few consequences. 
 
 In 2012, OSHA touted a crackdown at Illinois Gun Works, a firing range in Elmwood Park, a Chicago suburb. After federal inspectors found air inside the range contaminated with lead at 12 times allowable levels, the agency cited the range with 27 serious violations and hit it with $111,000 in fines. OSHA then hyped its enforcement in a widely distributed news release. 
 
 But since then, Illinois Gun Works has neither paid a dime nor fixed a single violation. Range owner Don Mastrianni, 59, a retired Chicago garbage collector, said he opted against making costly corrections after he learned his landlord was planning to demolish the building that housed his range. 
 
 Instead, Mastrianni kept the range operating for months before it was torn down in 2013 to make way for a new McDonald’s restaurant. Salvagers took no special precautions when hauling off the lead-caked debris. 
 
 OSHA has since sent the case to collections, but Mastrianni told The Times in March he had no plans to pay. He had kept active the defunct range’s business registration, believing that protected him from personal liability. 
 
 “They can’t come after me, they have to go after Illinois Gun Works,” he said. “But if Illinois Gun Works don’t exist, what are they going to do, go after McDonald’s? I wish them luck.” He died from a heart attack in April. 
 
 Another problem is many government agencies collect data from blood tests for lead, but don’t share it with occupational regulators. 
 
 Until recently, Iowa Department of Public Health wasn’t allowed to notify state occupational inspectors of gun ranges suspected of overexposing workers. That meant no inspection and no corrective action. 
 
 “It bothered me,” said Kathy Leinenkugel, the coordinator for the Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance Program in Iowa. She also faced political pressure over gun ranges. 
 
 “If we say to private clubs and retail [gun ranges] you need to make sure you follow OSHA, the pushback is the government is trying to take our guns away,” she said. “I’m not anti-gun. I want them to do it safely.” 
 
 California’s lead problems 
 
 California is viewed as a leader in fighting lead exposure. Even so, reported contaminations at its gun ranges have increased, though severe poisonings have dropped. 
 
 In 1986, California lawmakers passed a bill that created one of the nation’s first statewide blood-lead registries to track exposures at gun ranges and other workplaces. 
 
 Five years later, they established a lead-poisoning prevention program within the state’s Department of Public Health. The program educates problem shooting-range owners and managers about lead safety. But case workers have no enforcement authority and typically don’t conduct on-site investigations, working instead by phone and email. 
 
 They rarely refer range owners to California-OSHA for enforcement. When they do, it’s for particularly egregious cases. Cal-OSHA inspected 19 commercial indoor shooting ranges from 2004 to 2013, and fined them nearly $70,000. 
 
 But enforcement doesn’t always mean compliance. Repeat violators remain a problem, records show. And most California ranges have never been inspected. 
 
 “Overexposure to lead continues to be a serious occupational-health problem in California” gun ranges, Dr. Barbara Materna, occupational-health chief of the California Department of Public Health, said in an email. 
 
 When The Times asked the health department for public records of gun ranges with lead problems, it refused to provide company names, or even the city where they did business, citing privacy concerns. 
 
 Vulnerable volunteers 
 
 Thousands of other gun ranges — those run by volunteers or that are members-only clubs — simply aren’t monitored for lead problems. With no employees, these ranges are not subject to OSHA inspections and operators often are unaware of the dangers of lead contamination. 
 
 Bob Godlove and his wife traveled the Midwest, shooting in gun competitions. It was a bond that made their marriage stronger. But their passion for shooting turned toxic. 
 
 As president of the Linn County Izaak Walton League in Iowa for more than 15 years, Godlove volunteered 20 hours a week, cleaning the gun range and managing the facility. The conservation organization, with chapters across the United States, has as its motto “defenders of soil, air, woods, waters and wildlife.” 
 
 For years, Godlove knew he had chronic lead exposure, with blood-lead levels around 40 micrograms per deciliter. His wife never got above 20. But he thought nothing of test results because they were below 60, the OSHA standard that requires removal from work. The CDC says any lead level over 10 is a health risk. 
 
 In 2008, Godlove said, he felt tingling in his hands and feet, often lost his balance, and developed a temper. His lead level had shot up to 67 and lead attacked other parts of his body. 
 
 Former worker James Maddox, 46 Louisville, Ky. The former shooting-range manager at Bluegrass Indoor Range says his lead poisoning in 2007 nearly destroyed his life and family. Lead effects: Fatigue, weight loss, tingling fingers and toes, no sex drive Volunteer Bob Godlove, 65 Cedar Rapids, Iowa As president of Linn County Izaak Walton League, he got lead poisoning from volunteering at the shooting range. He took costly chelation pills for two years to remove the heavy metal from his system. Lead effects: Numbness in hands and feet, angry outbursts, loss of balance Gun-range owner Don Mastrianni, 59 Elmwood Park, Ill. The owner of the since-defunct Illinois Gun Works refused to fix lead problems in his gun range after OSHA cited him for violations and fined him $111,000 in 2012. He vowed to never pay the fine, and died in April 2014. Lead effects: Several workers were exposed to 12 times the permissible level of lead in the air. Gun-range owner Maria Geiss, 67 Kent, Wash. The owner of Champion Arms, an indoor shooting range in Kent that had ventilation problems, kept the doors open during appeals. A state lead expert called it the worst firing range ever inspected in Washington. Lead effects: Range workers and the public repeatedly have been overexposed to unsafe lead levels over the years. 
 
 When he told fellow league members he’d suffered lead poisoning, the culture he’d been a part of for decades smacked him right across the face. 
 
 Fellow competitive shooters were adamant lead wasn’t a problem. Many volunteers at the league didn’t feel any urgency despite at least one other person having elevated lead. They didn’t feel sick and no one had died, they told Godlove. 
 
 “I was unwilling to put it under the rug, and lots of people wanted me to,” Godlove said. 
 
 Others feared the range would close if people knew it was possibly contaminated. 
 
 “It’s a pervasive problem across the country — the lack of awareness and a belief that people and governments are trying to infringe on a gun owner’s rights and ability to shoot,” he said. 
 
 He upgraded the range ventilation system and posted lead-warning signs. He talks about personal hygiene with new members and in the basic firearms classes he teaches. 
 
 For more than two years, Godlove had to take chelation pills costing as much as $3,800 a month to rid his body of lead. But it was too late. It already had attacked his nervous system. 
 
 “It’s insidious,” he said. 
 
 With up to half of the feeling lost in his hands, Godlove has trouble picking up coins and paperwork. 
 
 He also can’t pull a trigger and fire accurately anymore. So he quit competitive shooting. 
 
 Christine Willmsen: cwillmsen@seattletimes.com or 206-464-3261. On Twitter @christinesea. 
 
 Lewis Kamb: lkamb@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2932. On Twitter @LewisKamb.
– Visiting a shooting range is not without risk, and we aren't talking about deadly accidents. Lead dust discharged by firearms is the leading cause of lead poisoning outside the workplace, the Seattle Times reported in a lengthy 2014 investigation. Each time a gun filled with lead-based ammunition is fired, a cloud of lead particles trails in the bullet's wake. The dust hangs in the air and collects on clothing, creating a hazard to anyone who comes in contact with it. The Times' conclusion: "Thousands of ... workers, shooters, and their family members have been contaminated at shooting ranges due to poor ventilation and contact with lead-coated surfaces." A 2016 Oregonian investigation backs that up, noting the ventilation system at a former National Guard Armory in Montana was clogged with "lead-laced bunnies the size of tangerines"; 20 workers fell ill. NPR takes a look at one move that has since been made: The Department of Defense in April tightened its limit for acceptable levels of lead in blood to 20 micrograms per deciliter. Bloomberg earlier this year cited a DoD rep who said roughly 1,200 DOD employees have their blood monitored for lead due to workplace exposure. The CDC adds these stats: 1.2 million law enforcement officials risk exposure as part of their weapons-training requirements; as many as 60,000 Americans work in shooting ranges, and 34 million Americans target shoot. But firearms advocates say fears of lead poisoning are "unsupported by evidence." A rep for the National Shooting Sports Foundation tells NPR he sees an effort afoot to "diminish people's participation in shooting sports or exercise their second amendment rights."