Lead is safe to handle, you just can’t eat it.

Handling lead tends to result on lead being on your hands, which has a nasty tendency to result in lead being on your lunch if you are not careful.

Basic safety precautions are fine.

To put it in perspective: millions of people in the US regularly handle ammunition and shoot firearms at indoor ranges. Those contain lead in many forms: the projectile itself, lead fulminate in the primer compounds, lead suspended in the air after firing, etc.

You make sure to have adequate ventilation, don’t touch your face, and wash your hands when you’re done. It’s important, yes, but not really that big a deal.

Given that the effects of lead tend to be a subtle change in mental state, and show up months or years later, we really don’t know that it’s fine.