Most gun owners use lead ammunition, yet half don’t practice hygiene behaviors after shooting
Most U.S. gun owners use lead-based ammunition and primers, and nearly half don’t engage in any post-shooting hygiene behaviors such as changing their clothes or showering, according to a nationally representative study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study, published Oct. 12 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, was co-authored by Christian Hoover, co-investigator at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center (HICRC), and David Hemenway, research professor of health policy and HICRC director.
Lead is a neurotoxicant with no safe exposure level. In adults, lead exposure has been linked with health issues such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and kidney failure; in children, exposure has been linked with issues such as decreased cognitive abilities and antisocial disorders. One way people can be exposed is via aerosolized lead from ammunition and primers (the explosive component in gun cartridges that helps propel the bullet).
According to Hoover and Hemenway, few previous studies have quantified firearm use, and none have considered ammunition type or post-shooting hygiene behaviors.
To learn more, the co-authors analyzed data from the National Firearm Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted in December 2024. They looked at data from 1,565 participants aged 18 or older who owned a firearm, reported firing a firearm in the past year, used lead-based ammunition (or were unsure of the type), and answered questions about post-shooting hygiene behavior.
The researchers found that, among U.S. firearm owners who had shot at least once in 2024, 97% reported using lead-based ammunition or primers. Overall, 46% engaged in no post-shooting hygiene behaviors, such as showering, changing clothes or shoes, or isolating gear before entering the home, and 30% engaged in only one—meaning that more than three-quarters of those who went shooting engaged in one or fewer hygiene behaviors.
The study also found that hygiene behaviors were more common among non-white, younger, urban-dwelling individuals with higher education and income and among those who shot more frequently and for longer durations.
Given the study findings, the authors concluded that roughly 15 million U.S. children live in homes where firearms with lead ammunition have been shot in the past year, and six million live in households where people who went shooting didn’t practice any post-shooting hygiene.
“Interventions targeting these hygiene behaviors may be recommended,” the authors wrote, “though future research is required to determine the effectiveness of specific hygiene behaviors as they relate to childhood lead concentrations.”
Read the study:
Lead Ammunition Use and Post-Shooting Hygiene Practices Among U.S. Firearm Owners
