Sorry to hear about your brother.

The answer to your question is not black or white.  It is subjective to the conditions and use of the miniatures. Painting does not necessarily protect from lead, unless the miniatures are completely sealed.  In that case, a reasonable level of protection is provided.  In reality though, unless one were to ingest the lead in some manner, there is very little risk.

The second question is never.  I believe that lead can still be used for miniatures in most, if not all, states.  Most companies switched to lead-free alloys around 1993-1995 anticipating issues.  Government regulations, implied or real, on lead use/handling/disposal have made it unattractive for use of lead in most applications.

For anyone that is interested, this is a decent article on the subject of lead miniatures:

http://miniatures.about.com/od/material ... thlead.htm

Condolences on your loss.  Bummer.

I agree with what's been said so far.  Lead really isn't much of an issue unless there are kids sticking the things in their mouth.  It is possible to handle minis and then rub your eye or pick your nose and absorb some lead, but you'd really have to work at it.  And if they are painted, it does help reduce the chances significantly more.  Just wash your hands when you are finished playing with them and you are all good.

And if you don't know what lead rot is, it's the oxidation of the lead and it looks like a white or grey powdery stuff.  It reduces the detail on minis and makes the ingestion/absorption of lead even easier.  When you run into this, just throw them away.  

My condolences as well.

Condolences for the loss of your brother.

Condolences for the loss of your brother as well...

My condolences

My condolences as well

Must be a tough time

Thanks for all of the well wishes either through here, PM or email.

Basically right now I'm going through the RPG book collection to see what printings are there, etc.  Then I shall try and tackle the miniatures to see what they are before I give them back to another brother because of the concerns for lead/paint.  Just need to borrow a camera to make that easier.

ShaneG.

Hi Shane---

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother's death

FWIW, our oldest son Ethan started painting lead minis (old Grenadiers, Heritages, etc.) when he was ~3-4 years old.  You can certainly make your own choices about the lead content in the minis, but as along as your children aren't eating the figures (for which the more significant risks would be puncturing something internal rather than the lead), you should be OK to have them in the house, play with them, etc.

Anyway, if there's anything I could help with, please don't hesitate to ask.