A substantial part of my telephone company career as a Splicer's Helper/Lineman/Installer/Repairman curing the 60's and 70's required significant daily exposure to lead cables and lead sheathing used for cable opening maintenance and repairs... often with open hand cuts. I've never heard of any case of employee lead poisoning as a result of working with or handling this material. Much of the lead sheathing scrap was routinely melted by employees to make fishing sinkers and lead bullets. In fact, lead was often donated to local police departments for their target range ammunition firings. While much of yesteryear's communications cable lead sheathing has been replaced with polyvynyl sheath cable and cast aluminum splice cases, a lot of lead cable is still used underground between manholes.