help bot wrote:
Interesting. So then, I could theoretically swallow ten pounds of
lead shot, then bet that I could "lose ten pounds in under a week",
earning a quick fifty cents for lunch money.

Nobody ever said it was safe to eat 10lb of lead. That would almost
certainly cause problems just from its physical weight -- your body
would have difficulty moving it around.

C'mon now: do you really believe all that lead shot
will simply pass through one's system /intact/?

Pretty much, yes. Remember that the purpose of lead shot is to shoot
things which one is then likely to eat. It's impossible to get the
shot out of the bird before eating it so some of it is going to get
swallowed by accident.

What about the acids in the stomach-- have they no affect on lead?

Almost none. Lead is very resistant to corrosion, which is why it's
used for church rooves. Of course, minute quantities will dissolve
but the amount of lead that will enter your system after swallowing a
couple of pellets of lead shot will, I'm sure, be negligible compared
to the amount of lead you've inhaled over the years from vehicle
exhausts.

And what about the epoxy? Is it, too, completely harmless if
ingested (presumably by a child)?

I believe so, yes. It's very unreactive.

Weird science...

Not at all.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Evil Psychotic Dictator (TM): it's
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ like a totalitarian leader but it
wants to kill you and it's genuinely
evil!