Comparative Study of 9×19 mm Ammunition Combustion Products and Residues

Abstract

[a] 1IntroductionSmall arms ranges are important locations that provide safe environments for learning and practicing shooting skills for military,l aw enforcement, and sport shooters.S mall caliber ammunition systems are used by the shooter,w ho comes in direct contact with the gun. Thus, rangeo perators must be aware of the potential environmental and human health impact and should operate within the range in ap rotective manner.Within small arms ammunitiona re found well-known toxic and/or carcinogenic and mutagenic chemicals (nitroaromatics, nitratee sters, chlorates,a mines, heavy metals, and derivatives, etc.). In general, the contaminants potentially founda tm ilitary firing/shooting ranges include:P b from lead styphnate/lead azide (primary constituent of primers, or small caliber projectiles), Hg from mercury fulminate (primer),S b( hardening agent for lead)a nd antimony sulfide (fuel for primingm ixtures),C u( jacket alloy metal, primary alloy in center-fire ammunition,s mall-caliber rifle bullets and frangible pistol ammunition), Zn (jacket alloy metal), Fe (iron tips on penetrator rounds and steel shots), Ni (coating to improve shotp erformance), Cd, Co, Cr (alloys in variousm unition rounds),w hite phosphorus( WP) (obscurants,p yrotechnics and tracers) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].Gases and residues produced by shooting small caliber munitions can haveadirect impact on the human health (by inhalation). Metallic residues and unburned energetic materials can also sediment on different surfacesa nd may become sourcef or as econdary contamination.In general, the environmental agencies do not have specific regulations regardingt he operation of ranges. However,t hese agenciesc an and do enforcel aws regulating release of contaminants to the environment and the disposal Abstract:D uring the last decades, authorities' awareness on environmentala nd human health impact at national and international level has increased in the field of small arms ammunitionc ontaining lead and antimony.T hus, the evolution of environmental policies regarding production and use of heavy metals and their compounds, especially in EU countries, implied extensive studies on the environmental implications of 919 mm caliber ammunition use, especially in indoor shooting ranges. In this context, the paper describes the experimentals tudies performed on Pbcontaining conventional FMJ (full metal jacketed)a mmunition and comparative measurements on new ammunition designedf or training. The combustionp roducts and residues from conventional Pb-containing ammunition and Cubased "greener" ammunition were compared in terms of gaseous products, metal concentration in aerosols and metal concentrations in solid residues. Gas emissions and solid residues were measured for fourd ifferent types of ammunitions.T he results showed that the copper content of the residue is significantly higheri nc ase of Cu-containing composite bullets. For the ammunition equipped with Pb bullet, an important percentage of the Pb residue is gene...

Metallic Fumes at Indoor Military Shooting Ranges: Lead, Copper, Nickel, and Zinc in Different Fractions of Airborne Particulate Matter

“…Small firearm shooting practice is regularly conducted at indoor shooting ranges. Depending on the efficiency of the ventilation, number of fired gunshots, ammunition type and propellant, and other factors, air can contain various metals, such as Cu, Pb, Zn, and Sb, and gaseous components such as CO, CO 2 , NO, NO, NH 3 , HCN, and CH 4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Although lead-free ammunition does not produce Pb, various metals (e. g. Cu, Zn, B, K, Fe), as well as organic compounds such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons and aldehydes, are present [8,10,11].…”

Potential Use in Forensics of a Novel Hybrid Gelatin—Dynamic Impact Assessment

“…The average results obtained are illustrated in Table . Taking into account previous similarities of the porcine organs and human organs , the results indicating the perforation of the organs indicate a good similarity of the new hybrid gelatin composite and the human organs. The small variations obtained between the porcine organs and the surrogate are below 5%, and they might be due to the inner vascularization of the real organs.…”

“…When trying to assess comparatively the physical and mechanical parameters of synthetic and natural organs or body parts, the establishment of an experimental setup similar to the human body is mandatory. If animal organs from various species make the subject of experiments, their properties versus the human ones have to be recorded and presented (11).…”

Environmental Assessment of Ammunition: the Importance of a Life‐Cycle Approach

“…Ad etailed Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) was implemented, in which primary data related to the ammunition production was collected from aR omanian company and the emissions associated with firing were measured as describedi n [27].T he results presented in Figure 4s how that, for the environmental categories, the impacts are essentially associated with the production of the ammunitionc omponents and the energy required for their assembly.I ti sa lso possible to see that for these categories the impactsa re unaffected by the modifications in the primer composition and only slightly influencedb yt he projectile type. The result mentioned above is expected since the magnitude of the impact contributioni ss trongly affected by the mass of the components.…”