Quote (Malopox @ 23 Mar 2023 16:33)
-From my knowledge - normal ammo is not toxic per se - gunpowder is a mix of sulfur/coal/potassium
potassium nitrate is so not poisonous that it’s been used for centuries as a food additive. In more recent times it’s been added to toothpaste. The MSDS specifies no dosage at which the alleged effects occur, lists no long term hazards, and gives no lethal dose (LD50). I estimate it to be about as toxic as salt.
Charcoal is just carbon. I’m sure if I look up the MSDS it will say it’s hazardous to inhale it in large quantities, but I know it’s safe enough to eat it. It just passes through.
As for sulfur, I don’t think there’s any limit to the amount you can eat without harm. It too passes through, though a possible side effect is you may get a bit smelly.
The only toxic part is exposure to lead - but it has to be in your body or you have to drink out of a lead utensils. If you have a bullet in your body already you probably will not care about the prolonged effect of toxicity of lead on your well-being.
- Every single tank set on fire by DU, every single ammo depot destroyed will contaminate everything around it. Yes it is not as bad as a direct nuclear blast with whole periodic table of isotopes present, but it will remain in the soil and will be absorbed by grain grown on this soil.
- I’m not aware of Russians using DU in Ukraine. They do have DU capabilities, but have not deployed them so far.
- Lead like you said, and it's really bad.
- Arsenic ( arsenic is in alloys of lead )
- Mercury (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury(II)_fulminate )
- And a whole load of very toxic components from explosives anyway
Russia. Putin.