Almost sold on rubber weight belt, but have questions

[kelemvor]

You can go to home depot, lowes, or whatever home improvement store they have in socal. Buy "plasti-dip" (not the spray can) and coat them yourself.

I thought I heard that lead was primarily only dangerous to ingest (or get shot with). The issue with lead paint is that children tend to eat loose flaking paint chips AFAIK. I don't know why paint chips would look tasty, but that's what I heard.

If you get some kind of pouch system you can more easily use coated lead. You can also use soft lead bags. I use the latter, bought empty bags from a dive store and filled it with inexpensive used shotgun "shot" from a local gun range. I think they charged me $25 for 50lb of the stuff. If you do that, wash it first.. reclaimed shot is dirty. The pouches are plenty secure, I've never had one come open or tear. Another buddy of mine actually made her own pouches with some thick "cloth" and a needle and thread. She spent almost nothing on her weights. If you buy the pouches and shot (for the same price I paid) you can have nice soft 5lb weights for $7.50 each. Much cheaper than stores around here sell hard lead for. We made four of every size from 1-5lb for well under $100 and I bring the bag of weights when I go on (road, not flying) dive trips. I've lent them out many times.

I looked it up. Here's what OSHA has to say about lead:

Lead can be absorbed into your body by inhalation (breathing) and ingestion (eating). Lead (except for certain organic lead compounds not covered by the standard, such as tetraethyl lead) is not absorbed through your skin.

Source: Substance data sheet for occupational exposure to lead - 1910.1025 App A

The lead we use in scuba is not an organic lead compound. That's why nobody is raising cain.

So, from that perspective - hard lead weights are safer for your child than soft lead. They'd have to bite or break off a chunk and eat it. Lead shot could potentially be eaten.

 

[cmburch]

The DumpsterDiver style rubber weightbelt with XS SCUBA pocket belt (coated weights in pockets) may be something to consider for ultimate comfort. Belt pockets seem very expensive now though. Again I would go with a thicker rubber belt. The Camo paint is for looks, but it also may reduce Pb and Sb rubbing off weights.

 

[Ojai Diver]

hard lead weights are safer for your child than soft lead. They'd have to bite or break off a chunk and eat it. Lead shot could potentially be eaten.

That's not my understanding.

Uncoated lead weights have a residue, and if one were to handle them, wet or dry, and place one's hand in the mouth, the lead residue would be ingested. It does not require eating a "chunk of lead."

 

[cmburch]

My lead shot weight belt soaked in about 2 gallons of water overnight came to about 0.17 mg/L of lead. Which is reasonable considering the greater surface area of lead shot and rubbing. Is this significant, 0.17 parts-per-million? So less than 1/4 ppm. Well yes, if one was to drink the bucket of water. Is it against the law to dump this bucket of water down my drain? No, the local level is 2 ppm for discharging into the sewer system. I guess someone else will have to look into this and determine can this level be harmful to children around the home if there was a possibility of contamination. (The dog drinking from the weight rinsing bucket?)

What I also noticed was almost 0.5 ppm antimony.

I switched back to my coated lead weights, so I have less to worry about the possibility of contaminating my home and the environment even if these levels are not significant.

Any handling rubbing of lead may release Pb/Sb. Just wash hands.

 

[kelemvor]

You can get the non ditchable pockets for $20 a pair. The ditchable pockets can be had for $22 a pair. The diverite pockets that I use are $96 a pair.

Personally, I don't think lead scuba weights present that much risk. Your test results are interesting, but there's enough dilution when we dive that even with all the divers out there I doubt it's a realistic concern. I don't worry about antimony at all myself, ymmv.

I guess the safest option would be to use coated hard lead in a ditchable pouch. Or use gold instead of lead At only $1,340.50/lb the added safety is a bargain!

 

[Ojai Diver]

Just wash hands.

Okay, I'll pass that on to my dive gear obsessed three year old son.

 

[divad]

Or use gold instead of lead At only $1,340.50/lb the added safety is a bargain!

$1,340.50 per pound of gold would be a bargain indeed.

 

[kelemvor]

$1,340.50 per pound of gold would be a bargain indeed.

I googled that price lol. Obviously I don't buy gold too often. It seems that the price is actually $19,509.14. But really, who can put a price on safety?

 

[tech3324]

For SCUBA, I use a DumpsterDiver style rubber/nylon belt with a high quality stainless steel quick release buckle. This belt can use any type of weights: pouch, coated, uncoated. Rubber belt connects to SS QR buckle webbing end. Nylon webbing connects to rubber using 2 SS belt slides. Nylon webbing goes through SS QR buckle release end.

I can post pictures later if you need them.

Yes, please post pictures if you would, sounds interesting.

 

[cmburch]

Top belt Marseillaise with painted green Tinman pinch weights.

Bottom belt rubber with painted green SS QR buckle. About 1.5ft Nylon webbing held on with 2 belt slides. Nylon webbing goes through buckle. (Idea similar to DumpsterDiver style rubber belt with nylon through SS QR buckle.)