Just what we've been needing: lead in poker chips

See:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071108/poker_chips_lead.html?.v=1

and

http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/005827.php

OK, I'll admit that the picture above is pretty lame. After all, it's not exactly infants who are likely to be doing the most handling of poker chips. But it's hard to find photos illustrating "lead," y'know?

Still, I think there is a serious problem here. The second link, to a blog post, gets it right: The lead is a potential hazard because of handling chips, getting lead on one's fingers, then eating--or, worse, smoking, since inhalation is the most efficient means of getting lead into one's blood--without washing one's hands first. Unfortunately, this is a disgustingly common practice among poker players. (See http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-think-im-going-to-throw-up.html.)

After poker, my next recreational love is competitive pistol shooting, and we have the same problem there: shooters handle lead bullets all day long, but then just can't be bothered to wash their hands before eating or smoking. It's incredibly foolish, but that's how people are.

I know little about manufacturing processes, but I have a hard time thinking of any good reason that a company would need to use lead in the making of poker chips (unless your plant is in China, where, apparently, use of lead is pretty much mandatory for everything). So stop being defensive about it and just find an alternative already, OK?

Now, putting a thin layer of lead in poker cards would make a lot of sense, because then if you were playing with Superman, he couldn't use his x-ray vision to see what you're holding. (Damn. Can't find an illustration of Superman playing poker. That would have been awesome.)

Addendum, November 14, 2007

See also:

http://www.vegasrex.com/2007/11/12/this-is-why-us-poker-players-are-so-stupid/

and the embedded video at

http://kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7339326