Sorry to hear man.. 100% understand the sentiment and feeling, oh to be young and naive again... Walked off a job site once in the middle of winter 20 minutes out of town because dumbass boss had us pulling boards on an old army barracks that had asbestos insulation.. asked for PPE, got told I didn't need it, told him to fuck himself and that he's a fucking goomba for knowingly working with that shit unprotected.. Fucking asbestos man, lord our species is wreckless when hindsight starts to focus.

Worked a probably comical amount of different construction and manufacturing jobs over the younger years, working with dumbasses who handled roofing shingles, gyprock and fibreglass insulation for YEARS without realizing the damage not wearing PPE did, nor really warning me about any negative effects.. Of course now almost 2 decades on the amount of fucking glass shedding out of my hands is quite frankly a hell I would not wish upon many..

I'm excited to try this shit out.. getting passable at 3D modelling and design, have some really cool shit I'd like to put into production, but not quite there yet as far as timing and whatnot. Have learned (from the old man of all places) how to smelt lead wheel weights, purify the lead, pour it into ingots and process said ingots into various caliber bullets..! While I HIGHLY advise against handling and smelting / pouring of lead, with proper respiration and protective leathers on... contamination can be kept mostly to a manageable level.

The spaniards have a saying "plata o plomo" meaning silver or lead, personally I'd way rather know how to work lead than carry a bit of shiny silver if I had to pick one or the other..

(I'd recommend carrying small amounts of silver and gold on yourself (rings, chains etc), not "make yourself a target" amounts but enough for emergency barter, sale to a gold buyer or to post bail in a tough financial or life situations)