Lead pollution: causes and solutions

Pollution: Where? Where? Why?

To answer this question, we need to distinguish between shooting with airguns and shooting with firearms, and between the shooting range and the target range.

- Airguns

Pollution occurs at the target and is linked to the crushing of the projectile against what is generally a steel plate... The tests and measurements we have carried out over the years show that pollution linked to the passage of the projectile through the barrel is very low, even negligible.

However, this pollution at the target will eventually spread to the shooting range as a result of air currents caused by opening doors, ventilation on the shooting range, and the to-and-fro movement of target carts.

In other words, according to our tests, if you eliminate pollution at the target, there's little or no pollution at all.

- Firearms

Although the 2 sites are quite far apart, pollution exists both at the shooting range and at the target range.

At the target range, it is linked to the projectile being crushed against steel plates or even into earth or sand mounds, with the projectiles eventually amalgamating with each other.

At the shooting range, we believe that pollution is linked to projectile propulsion. When the gunpowder ignites, temperatures of up to 3,000°C and pressures of up to 3,500 bar can be reached. Under these extreme conditions, it is possible for the base of the projectile to melt super-fast.

Pollution measurements

This is generally referred to as :

Surface pollution: this is measured by sampling a horizontal surface with a wipe.

This measurement is not very significant: you can have a high value with a low concentration of lead in the air if the housework has not been done for a long time... The threshold not to be exceeded is 1 mg/m².

The club can take these samples itself or contact a monitoring agency.

Air pollution: to measure this type of pollution, a sample is taken from the ambient air in the area to be monitored. Generally at respiratory tract level.

A pump sucks in air, passes it through a filter and then measures the quantity of lead trapped by the filter.

This is an interesting measurement to make, but the value found should be compared with the time spent in the polluted environment: it's easy to see that if you spend 1 hour a month in the polluted enclosure, it's not the same as spending 8 hours a day there...

The club can take these samples itself, but it will need to have the necessary equipment (sampling pump) or contact a control office.

Lead levels: here, on the other hand, it's very telling. It's really about the poisoning you've suffered, and this is what can lead to cancer.

To have your blood lead level measured, ask your doctor.

Thresholds set by the European Union

European regulations changed at the beginning of 2024 and drastically lowered lead concentration thresholds.
The threshold for lead particles in air has been lowered from 150 µg/m3 to 30 µg/m3, and for lead in blood from 700 µg/liter to 150 µg/liter.
Unfortunately, the threshold for lead concentration in the air is often reached, and sometimes far exceeded. 

Shooting range concerned

All shooting ranges (airguns and firearms) are affected.

Obviously, pollution will be more 'contained' and concentrated in indoor shooting ranges (air guns and firearms) than in outdoor shooting ranges. The most penalising situation is that of indoor shooting ranges for firearms.

Over a period of 2 years, we carried out more than 100 pollution measurements (including aerial measurements) at 7 different shooting ranges: the vast majority of these measurements revealed pollution levels in excess of the 30 µg/m3 standard.

What can be done to combat this pollution?

The main solutions we have considered (although there may of course be others) are :

- Replacing lead with another material

According to our information, ammunition manufacturers are looking into this subject. Without questioning their competence/research, we believe that, unfortunately, lead has major advantages in this shooting application:

Density (11.33)

It is ductile, which means it can be easily scratched by guns. Gold is even more ductile, but we don't think we'll be seeing gold projectiles any time soon!

It is relatively inexpensive

- Ventilation

Ventilation is the most widely adopted solution to date, but we need to be precise when we talk about ventilation. One type of ventilation that gives relatively effective results is that adopted by government agencies (national police or army shooting ranges), namely "piston" ventilation. This consists of a blowing wall behind the shooter and a suction wall in front of the shooter. This creates an air current, in the literal sense of the word, moving at a speed of over 0.4 m/s. For a 10-station, 1m-wide shooting range with a ceiling height of 2.5 m, this corresponds to 36,000 m3/h [0.4 x 3,600 x 10 x 2.5], which is considerable.

Such a ventilation solution is therefore costly in terms of investment (more than €15,000 per shooting station) and also in terms of operation, because in cold weather, heating such a flow of air by a few degrees (outside temperature) to 16 or 17°C is very energy-intensive. Not to mention the fact that this solution is not very environmentally-friendly: in addition to consuming energy, it simply shifts the problem to the outside, since the air discharged outside has to be filtered, and the filters replaced...

- Make sure you don't pollute

This is the solution we've adopted.

Ecotrap bullet traps

The ECOTRAP bullet traps we offer come in several versions: for air weapons (ECOTRAP 10) and for firearms (ECOTRAP 50 for shooting at 50 metres in calibre .22 LR and ECOTRAP 25 for shooting at 25 metres in calibre .22 LR to .357 Mag).

ECOTRAP 10 ECOTRAP 50

- Performance - Efficiency

The effectiveness of the ECOTRAP 10 bullet trap for airguns has been tested by an international testing agency (SGS, world leader in inspection, testing, analysis and certification).

For this purpose, we specially built 2 firing lines at 10 m with new clean-room type panels.

We installed 2 bullet traps: ECOTRAP 10 and an electronic target system consisting of a conventional inclined steel sheet.

We then fired 500 pellets into each firing line over a period of 8 hours.

The international control office installed sensors near the targets.

Values recorded: 147 µg/m3 of air with the conventional bullet trap and 4.7 µg/m3 with ECOTRAP 10. The INRS (Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité - French institution) considers that below 10 µg/m3 of air the value is not significant because it is within the margin of error of the measuring devices and analysis equipment. It can therefore be said that ECOTRAP 10 avoids all pollution. 

Aspect of the 4.5 mm projectiles collected with ECOTRAP 10

The effectiveness of the ECOTRAP 50 and ECOTRAP 25 bullet traps for firearms can be assessed quite simply by looking at the condition of the projectiles recovered.

Appearance of projectiles of all calibres recovered with ECOTRAP 25 

Appearance of .22 LR projectiles with ECOTRAP 50

- Performance - Longevity of the shock absorber

Collecting projectiles without destroying them is within everyone's reach. Creating a device that captures thousands of projectiles before becoming inoperative is more complicated. That's the goal we've set ourselves...

However, it is very difficult or random to give a lifetime for the shock-absorbing consumable, as this depends on the precision of the shots fired: the more precise the shots (grouped together), for example high-level rifle shots, the faster the shock-absorbing consumable is destroyed. Conversely, shots fired by novice gunners will have much less impact on the longevity of the consumable.

Ecotrap 10 bullet trap

We carried out tests under the most demanding conditions for the life of the shock-absorbing consumable, i.e. shooting with a rifle clamped in a vice. Under these conditions, we fired over 15,000 shots without destroying a single tube. This suggests that longevity can vary from 15,000 to 30,000 shots, depending on the situation.

Ecotrap 25 and 50 bullet traps

The tests carried out with these bullet traps vary according to the precision of the shots and the power of the projectiles.

Here again, longevity varies from 4,000 to 10,000 shots.