*DEBUNKED* Toxic Levels of Lead in Black Rubber Feed Bowl Water, 30 mg/L, 2000 Times EPA Limits

[BantyChooks]

Apparently most of these lead test kits are nearly useless.

This gives me new concerns since I know my house water pipes are made of lead. I've tested the water with home kits but if they aren't that reliable then maybe I should look into some other tests.

Thanks for reporting back with your end conclusions - much appreciated.

 

[Folly's place]

There are good laboratories who do water testing, and also egg/ blood testing for poultry. our eggs went to the MSU Veterinary Path Lab in Lansing.
Some eggs from urban flocks won't test well, it's the old lead paint issue.
Mary

 

[TexasBlues]

Interesting thread.
Anecdotally… I used 5 gallons of run off rain water from my roof and put it in my 100 gallon outdoor fish tank. All the fish died within a day. I figured it was something to do with the roof shingles leaching some toxins.

 

[TwoAcreHomestead]

Finally finished editing the 5 gig of video taken yesterday, plus a disclaimer in the beginning thanking this forum for its help that I recorded today, and have the video posted.

I want to thank all of you for the valuable information and guidance you provided during this process.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Here is my test results. The first photo is testing result for fresh tap water in a glass bowl. The second photo: left: tap water in a plastic dog bowl for 48 hours; right: tap water in a rubber bowl for 48 hours. I forgot to take picture of the fresh water results until later, so it faded some. However, you still can tell there's no lead level difference between these results. It's interesting that the rubber bowl water has higher level of Nitrate and Nitrogen Dioxide. I use this rubber bowl to give chickens fermented feed for years, so I guess that's where it comes from.

 

[boyo]

I wouldn't say that this is *DEBUNKED*, I think that it just shows the results are inconclusive because these strips are not accurate. If we don't know if the lead is leaching or not, that's very different than saying it is not.

I think the title should say *INCONCLUSIVE* until someone does a proper test by sending the results to an actual water testing facility, along with a control sample as well (perhaps from bottled water)

I think some more investigation is warranted here. I would like to have the peace of mind to know I'm not harming my animals, consuming lead via eating animal products, and selling lead contaminated products to my community who may go feed my eggs to especially vulnerable people like toddlers. An inconclusive test doesn't really give that peace of mind. And even if I switch to other containers I would like to know what I'm getting if I buy meat, eggs, or dairy from other farmers who use these.

I would be willing to do that but the tests here for full mineral analysis are I think a few hundred bucks (Canadian).

That's probably more than anyone person would fork out over the cost of a $15 bowl, but maybe we could crowd source it. If enough interested folks pitched in a few bucks I would be willing to do it since I'm interested to know myself. Maybe we can set up a small go-fundme for it, or I would be happy to pitch in a few bucks if someone else wants to organize it who maybe has access to cheaper tests.

 

[DaisyBuff]

That's terrible. Thank you for informing us. I will look out to avoid this product in the future. It seems we can never fully escape toxic chemicals, either in our products or what we use for our animals.

 

[NatJ]

That's terrible. Thank you for informing us. I will look out to avoid this product in the future. It seems we can never fully escape toxic chemicals, either in our products or what we use for our animals.

If you only read the first post, you should read this post as well:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...times-epa-limits.1620309/page-5#post-27692783

And maybe these two, that came before and after it:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...times-epa-limits.1620309/page-5#post-27692267

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...times-epa-limits.1620309/page-5#post-27692820

Summary: the test strips were bad. So that high lead reading was almost certainly wrong. But the OP does not have a source of accurate test strips, meaning no-one knows for sure whether there is actually any lead or not. The readings from water in the bowl have been exactly matching the readings from all other water containers and sources, which either means no lead in any of them, or lead in all of them, or could just mean the test strips are not actually telling anything and are completely useless.

 

[TwoAcreHomestead]

I wouldn't say that this is *DEBUNKED*, I think that it just shows the results are inconclusive because these strips are not accurate. If we don't know if the lead is leaching or not, that's very different than saying it is not.

I think the title should say *INCONCLUSIVE* until someone does a proper test by sending the results to an actual water testing facility, along with a control sample as well (perhaps from bottled water)

I think some more investigation is warranted here. I would like to have the peace of mind to know I'm not harming my animals, consuming lead via eating animal products, and selling lead contaminated products to my community who may go feed my eggs to especially vulnerable people like toddlers. An inconclusive test doesn't really give that peace of mind. And even if I switch to other containers I would like to know what I'm getting if I buy meat, eggs, or dairy from other farmers who use these.

I would be willing to do that but the tests here for full mineral analysis are I think a few hundred bucks (Canadian).

That's probably more than anyone person would fork out over the cost of a $15 bowl, but maybe we could crowd source it. If enough interested folks pitched in a few bucks I would be willing to do it since I'm interested to know myself. Maybe we can set up a small go-fundme for it, or I would be happy to pitch in a few bucks if someone else wants to organize it who maybe has access to cheaper tests.

I agree that there needs to be independent and scientific testing of a wide sample of these bowls.
Fortex is the brand of mine, and it is made in USA. How would it compare against a Chinese made bowl?
I do not have the resources to purchase a variety of bowls and test them all accurately for lead content.
If anyone knows someone at a university lab that wants to take on the project, that might be the best solution.

 

[boyo]

Yeah that's a great idea. This might make a good research project for a student doing work in agricultural science