Sweet PDZ/ Zeolite dust

Does anyone have advice on minimizing/ removing dust from Sweet PDZ? I bought the granules but it's still really dusty when pouring it or when the chicks dig around/ run around in it. Right now I am running an air filter in the room with the brooder but I'm still a bit concerned because the bathroom that they are being brooded in connects to my daughters bedroom. I'm not sure if everyone is aware that zeolite dust is linked to mesothelioma (lung cancer, same as what asbestos causes). I'm sure it's more of a chronic exposure issue but I'd like to reduce dust as much as possible. Anyone do anything to clean the sweet PDZ or reduce dust coming off it? I was thinking of taking it outside and wearing a mask and stirring it for a while.

I did a little reading up on this after I read the MSDS for the sweet PDZ. The zeolite itself isn't the problem but rather the free silica dust it contains. All natural zeolite contains some free silica, PDZ has 0.07-0.10% which is considered very low. The risk involved with being exposed to PDZ is comparable to the play sand in sandboxes which has to have a warning label in California. I think a good quality air filter is your best defense against the dust, I imagine stirring it would just break it down into more dust.

Thanks for the response, especially the bit about play sand. I'm used to the fact that everything is known to the state of CA to cause cancer but the MSDS for zeolite did have me a bit freaked out about the dust. I guess I forget that things like playsand are also "risks". I have been running an air filter just above the brooder and it's amazing how much dust it's sucked up already. I'm looking forward to getting the brooder out of my house in the next few weeks.

Would it really be licensed for animal use if it was carcinogenic?
What about the people handling it?

Why can't you use Diamatious Earth if you are just using it inside your chicken house, bees and good insects shouldn't be inside the chicken house to effect them. I was reading the zeolite will also dehydrate insects as the Diamatious Earth does and the earth is not caustic. Another product to look at may be calcium bentonite clay. It is a powder form also and absorbs odors and toxins, etc. It can be injested and is good for you and the chicks. I use calcium bentonite clay in my koi pond and also buy food grade for myself to take daily. Just a thought.

Perhaps it is prudent to put a mask on.
With that said, zeolite REMOVES hot particles and radiation from foods including milk. Put zeolite in your ref just as you would baking soda.
EXCELLENT for removing mold.
What is not to love about it.

It's not carcinogenic, it's a 'mechanical' danger.

Zeolite absorbs ammonia and probably other chemical gases.

Very, very small particles of mineral can scar the lungs....kinda like getting sand in your eyes.

Silica, zeolite, DE, bentonite clay...(and water).... are all bad to breathe.


Thinks the dust the OP is talking about is probably mostly dander from new chicken feather sheaths.

I also did not think of putting the PDZ in a brooder. I am planning to use it on a poo board inside my coop, but was going to use pine shavings in my brooder. Perhaps on a poo board it won't get played in much like it will a brooder so there won't be as much dust being stirred up and floating in the air.

Granular zeolites are not easy to digest, but pulverized zeolite is another matter altogether...

Statement of FACT: When you swallow zeolites, you are swallowing lead and aluminum. As I've stated in previous articles, I don't believe this is a concern when zeolites are granular and largely intact for the simple reason that zeolites are similar to tiny rocks (grains of sand) in the sense that they are not digested in the human stomach. Large, granular zeolites pass right through your digestive tract, and you literally poop them out intact.

However, when zeolites are ground into a fine powder -- "micronized" -- manufacturers and retailers promise this allows them to be absorbed into the bloodstream. If these fine-ground zeolite materials are going into the blood, then they are almost certainly adding lead and aluminum to the blood, since those two elements are substantially present in zeolites.

Some of the marketing hype I've seen on zeolites claim that zeolites are removing toxic elements from the body because clinical trials have observed aluminum being eliminated via urine when people consume zeolites. This isn't proof that zeolites extract aluminum from the body's tissues; it's only the obvious demonstration that when you swallow a lot of aluminum, your body tries to get rid of it. No surprise there, I hope. If you drink mercury, you'll also find mercury in your poop. This does not mean that eating mercury "removes" mercury from your body.

People with symptoms told to take more zeolites

As I've been receiving feedback from more and more readers, I'm learning that many people started taking zeolites because they suspected their bodies had been contaminated by chemicals or heavy metals. They were told that zeolites would remove these substances from the body, and when these people experienced worsening symptoms over time (such as brain fog, dizziness, headaches, muscle fatigue, mood instability, etc.), they were often told to take more zeolites.

An obvious question emerges from all this: Could zeolites be causing some of these symptoms? If a person takes micronized zeolites each day for, let's say, 90 days in a row, how much of an additional burden of lead and aluminum are they placing on their bodies and brains? Could zeolites themselves be contributing to brain fog, dizziness, headaches and other symptoms for which people are being told to "take more zeolites"?

Is it also possible that zeolites might be useful on a temporary clinical basis but harmful if consumed day after day, year after year, in substantial quantities as if they were food? I don't yet know for certain if this is the case, but it's a reasonable theorem when considering the lead and aluminum composition of zeolites themselves (and the quantities some people consume on a daily basis).

The typical narrative on zeolites: They remove aluminum and lead!

The typical story on zeolites goes something like this, a passage from a 2012 article written on Natural News by Dr. David Jockers:

Zeolites are effective at adsorbing heavy metals such as mercury, lead, aluminum, cadmium, and arsenic. These toxins are quickly accumulating in our bodies in the 21st century due to our overuse of chemicals in our food, household products, personal hygiene products, water, and medical treatments. These heavy metals are highly toxic and create massive free radical stress in the brain, liver, kidneys, and gut.

Yet this article on Natural News utterly failed to state that zeolites contain substantial quantities of lead and aluminum, the very metals described as "toxins" in this article about zeolites! (This is not a criticism of Dr. Jockers, by the way. Neither he nor I were aware of the elemental composition of zeolites until recently. There are many articles about zeolites on Natural News which were written before this composition information became known. As of now, they are obsolete because they were written without the benefit of knowing zeolite composition.)

Are you seriously swallowing 270mg of lead every year and calling it a "detox?"

A popular zeolite product advises users to "Detoxify Daily" on its label. Each serving of this particular zeolite powder is 15 grams of zeolite material, according to its label. In a 30-day month, this would equal 450 grams of zeolite taken orally.

If this zeolite is, let's say, 25,000+ ppm aluminum, then it contains at least 25 milligrams of aluminum per gram. Multiply that by 450 grams consumed in a month, and you get 11,250 milligrams of aluminum a month, or 135 grams of aluminum a year that you would otherwise not be consuming.

Similarly, for a zeolite product that's, say, 50 ppm lead, you would be getting 50 micrograms of lead per gram. If you consume 450 grams in a month, you're swallowing 22,500 micrograms of lead, or 22.5mg of lead in a month.

Do this for a full year, and you've swallowed 270mg of lead in a calendar year.

To me, this seems like an extraordinary high level of lead intake for a product that claims to "detoxify" your body. I don't know anybody interested in natural health who, when presented with these facts, would think it's a wise idea to consume 270mg of lead every year as a dietary supplement, regardless of its form or absorption or detox claims.

Consider this: If zeolites are supposed to be removing X milligrams of lead from your body every year, but zeolites themselves add 270mg of lead to your body, then doesn't that mean in order to be effective, zeolites would have to excrete X + 270mg of lead from your body every year? Think about it... if your goal is to eliminate lead, why would you eat more lead? If your goal is to eliminate aluminum, why would you eat more aluminum?

Another question: Of this 270mg of additional lead you're swallowing each year, how much of this lead is excreted vs. deposited in the body somewhere? According to the CDC:

Absorbed lead that is not excreted is exchanged primarily among three compartments

- Blood

- Mineralizing tissues (bones and teeth), which typically contain the vast majority of the lead body burden

- Soft tissue (liver, kidneys, lungs, brain, spleen, muscles, and heart)

Take the zeolite challenge: Drop zeolites for 28 days and see if you feel better

In the interests of public health, I'm encouraging Natural News to drop zeolites for 28 days and see how you feel.

Why 28 days? According to the CDC, the half-life of lead in human blood is 28 - 36 days. This means whatever excess lead is circulating in a person's blood will be reduced by roughly half in about a month.

In two months, lead concentrations will drop to one-fourth, and in three months down to one-eighth.

If you've been swallowing 270mg of lead every year (and 11g of aluminum every month) in the form of zeolites, a 28-day holiday away from those dietary sources might make a noticeable difference in your personal experience.

People have children talking who have never talked amongst other life changing events. There's more to it than meets the eye. I'm still learning but those reviews are powerful!