kg4wsv:
Lead is not the boogey-man some have made it out to be. Don't ingest it and there are no problems. This amounts to having the brains to wash your hands before eating and not letting kids gnaw on it.
Pretty much all elemental metals are fairly nasty to ingest. Lead's a bad one; there was a lot of lawsuits and industrial action in the early part of the 20th century from the garment makers (white lead used as a marker), painters (white lead causing wrist and leg drop) and petroleum workers (tetra-ethyl lead fumes). Lots of unfun reading in books like Markowitz, Gerald and David Rosner. Deceit and Denial. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
I know I would follow the guidelines, but I can't guarantee that the people that get my stuff after me will. Having known someone whose life was blighted by lead poisoning, I don't want to take that risk.
I find it quite ironic that allegedly "green" groups are pushing CFLs, which contain mercury which is a problem, quite mobile once it gets loose in the environment, etc.
I work in the power industry. Even if CFLs are disposed in the worst way possible, the mercury released is far less than the mercury emitted by power plants needed to drive incandescents. Either way, I'm glad that domestic LED lighting is now affordable, and I'm replacing CFLs as they fail with LEDs.