Health Hazard warning on bag of grit?

[KelBelle]

I went to pick up a bag of grit today and was rather concerned about the Health Hazards warning on it. I decided not to buy this particular bag. It said it contains aluminum oxide. Now why would I want to give my chickens something to injest that we know is harmful to humans? How many manufacturers of grit are there?

 

[Illia]

Isn't aluminum oxide the colorant they use for it? I know some grit bags have coloring in them to make them appear "tasty" or some weird reason. . . I think the only warning they're trying to say is that you should not breath it in when pouring it, as it comes up in a dust cloud.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

A good many rocks have varying degrees of aluminum oxide in their make up. Granite being one of them. Why they have to put a warning label on the bag I don't know, but many rocks that make good poultry grit are likely to have a fair amount of aluminum oxide in them because it is a very hard mineral.

The red coating found on some grit is usually a mineral and/or vitamin supplement.

Edited to add: I suspect the warning label is because of the inhalation hazard from the rock dust the grit contains.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Why they have to put a warning label on the bag I don't know

One word: LAWYERS

It won't hurt the chickens though.

If they free range they probably don't need any grit at all​

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Yeah they don't want to be sued. Breathing rock dust is serious business.