LEAD found in coop and we've been eating the eggs !Freaking out !

[prov31gal]

Quote:
Not very inconsistant. Numbers matter. For instance there is iron in your food and iron in your body (your body only works if it DOES have sufficient iron, in fact, for hemoglobin etc), but if you consume too much iron it will kill ya (and the amount isn't that huge, as witness a number of tragic deaths of children from finding mommy's vitamins-plus-iron pills). Or, there is arsenic in your air/water/food right now and the amount is low enough not to have any noticeable effect on you, but if I put enough extra arsenic in your soup, that would be the end of the discussion.

By "there is no safe level of lead", what's meant is that currently the data suggest a continuous relationship between lead intake and physical problems, rather than an exposure threshold below which the slope of the curve is zero. That does not mean that a teensy amount of lead is as harmful as a whole lot of it. It also does not seem to be true of all substances, there are many for which current evidence *does* seem to demonstrate a level below which nothing seems to happen.

You might look up how much <thing of your choice> is contained in a vaccination, then look up (and calculate) how much is in your air, household dust, your food, etc.

I am not arguing for vaccinations nor for casual environmental exposure to toxins; I am just saying, numbers MATTER and should not be ignored just cuz it makes for more-exciting rhetoric.

JMHO,

Pat

iron is needed by your body.......so thats not really the same thing, you can die of over hydreation too, from too much water same kind of thing, but those are necessary to life. and arsenic and cyanide for that matter atr in many foods, NATURALLY. cyanide is actually a proven cancer killer in the right amounts, its found naturally in apple seeds and apricot pits, people who eat these regularly do not get cancer. but lead.......thats different, it is not good for you at all. its a poison. mercury is a poison too, heavy metald can leave deposits in the brain causing all types of problems. so it isnt really the same thing. i see your logic, but if you really research the subject..........you might change your mind.
ok im done , too far off topic!

 

[Penturner]

I really do not get the hysteria that effects people over these issues. Anyone remember when we where running out of energy? when you where not supposed to eat eggs because it would clog up your arteries and make your head explode, or was it your heart? Now sunshine will kill you, I think my parents had it in for me when i was little they always sent me outside to play. Did you know that spiders are poisonous? Really they are so if you find any in your house I suggest you burn it to the ground. haul away the ashes to a toxic dump site and keep it contained for 100,000 years. Remember when the asbestos scare first started and the made a law that any and all asbestos anywhere had to be removed from any building? then the government figured out that meant pretty much level every building they owned and that in fact messing with it made the problem worse. somehow all that dangerous stuff became not so dangerous anymore. how convenient. unless of course you need to build than you have to hire a "Specialist" to remove it. You know what the definition of "Specialist" in this case is. someone who knows how to take it out carefully and not make a big mess. when i was growing up we called that person Mom.
Okay all the above is meant to be somewhat humorous but with a point. but here is a real life story of what can happen when you choose to manage your life out of your fears. And there is no humor about it. 7 years ago a co worker of mine was told by his doctor that he needed to start getting annual colonoscopies, Why? well because he was at that age. I asked him if he had any other reasons to think he needed one and he said no but he was following his doctors advice so he went and got one. they found a polyp. keep in mind that a polyp is not cancer but it is suspected that they can become cancerous, well anything can become cancerous. So out of fear the polyp may become cancerous it was decided to remove it. during the surgery the surgeon made a mistake and burned through the wall of his colon with a laser and did not realize he had done so. what was supposed to be 6 weeks off work turned into a year and a half battle with an infection spreading through his hip, drains being installed and 4 surgeries. He was able to return to work for only two weeks in that time and even then did not have enough energy to do much more than get to work. He was forced to retire and 6 months later died from complications from a surgery that had a high degree of chance it never needed to be preformed in the first place. Did you know they actually tested and demonstrated that if you place a nickle under the skin of lab rats. some of them will get cancer. and that they actually put out a public health warning that the metal in the nickles you carry around can cause cancer. I just said when I start carrying my money around under my skin i will worry about it, and even then only a little bit. truth is your kids are exposed to more lead while playing in your yard than they could possibly get even if your chicken had eaten the entire window glass and all.
Just how much lead do you really think could be in that paint. it is not even 1/1000 of an inch thick covers what maybe a couple of square feet at most and what do you think the parts per million the lead actually is.
here is another real life example of what I mean. some of the tile floors where i work have asbestos in them. so someone decided it was to dangerous scrub them but any non asbestos floors could be scrubbed. I then had a sample of tile tested and a cup of tap water (what they would use to scrub the floor) the water came back showing three times as much asbestos as the tile. Now keep in mind that it is complicated but asbestos tests do not really test for asbestos. they test for anything that could even remotely be asbestos and if they find anything the assume it is the worst. it is a bit like getting all freaked out about Viruses and thinking you need to nuke the entire country to try and exterminate them. entire industries exist souly because the people in this country have gotten this panic if someone in a lab coat says it is bad.
replace the window and move on. life has real problems you should be thinking about. By the way this is coming from someone that lives in an area that you cannot eat the fish because the water is so polluted with Mercury, Lead and Cyanide. Yeah mining country. you want an idea of what it takes to really do some harm. come look at a few of these mines and learn what practices they used to get the gold ans silver separated from the dirt. bathing the ground in chemicals. and even then there is only a warning to not eat more than x number of ounces of fish per year. yes lead is poisonous do not get me wrong, but so are spiders and snakes, are you not going to let your kids outside because those things are out there?
Anyone care to take a stab at what is the leading cause of death. 100% of people that have died anywhere int he world have been subjected to it. any guesses?
















Being Born.

 

[rancher hicks]

I sure hope the OP reads this.
First have everyone tested. The state may do this for free. Then again leave the state out.
Second DO NOT scrape or us chemical stripping agents. Why? Cause the fumes can cause nerve damage. Currently I have a hand that shakes on occasion and I used this chemical stuff alot and now I wonder.
Third if you must strip use a mask and gloves and a HEAT stripper. Do it far away from where you intend to keep the birds. Or you could have them done by a commercial furniture stripper. If you do it take the glass out first it will be easier.
Fourth if you haven't, toss the eggs away for awhile until you feel safe. If you'll never feel safe start over w/ new birds.
If you decide to start over and have an incu pm me and I'll send you half doz of my marans eggs to hatch. I've never mailed eggs before so we'll see what happens. There no peace like peace of mind. The thing we should all want is for our friend here to feel safe.

Personally when we were first married my dau tested for lead and the state made the landlord come in and paint over everything that tested pos. for lead. I don't recommend that solution as the new paint may not take and chickens might peck it off as well.
Take care.

 

[upintheholler]

I work in a leaded environment.So I have had a lot of lead training.OSHA has set limits for exposure in the workplace.Lead tests are performed by a blood test.A sample is taken and put in a centrifuge .It is spun and the lead being heavy gets spun out and analyzed.OSHA claims a safe lead level is 40 ppm.I have seen people that didnt follow procedures and there levels was above 80 ppm.It wasnt pretty headaches diarrhea stomach cramps.Most exposure is from inhalation.Some comes from ingestion.And OSHA says it will not absorb through your skin.Im not sure about that.Children are at the most risk for exposure.There kidneys are not fully formed yet and cant filter out the lead.There little nervous systems are the same way just forming and lead damages nervous systems.Im not sure about how to handle lead paint.I would guess paint over it so no more comes off.

 

[ACS285]

1. 10 hens and a roo. 2. they are just now 6 months old ,have been laying for 2 weeks, been living in the coop for 4 months now. 3. who knows how long but probably the whole time !

I just went down there and stapled up hardware cloth so they can't get to the windows anymore, until hubby can figure out something more permenant.

And I made doctor's appointments for the 2 little ones to get lead tested ! Now I will find a vet that lead tests- I'll test the barred rock that was pecking the windows and assume they were all doing it.

This totally sucks. I took the leftover testing pads and tested some of my jadite dishes. Well guess what ? They have freakin lead in them too !!!

I know this is a bit old but, how were the test results? I just discovered my chickens were eating lead paint from some old metal roofing abandoned with the property next door. We bought the property a year ago and have slowly been working through the overgrowth... I don't know how long they've been exposed to it exactly but for a few weeks at least... Most of the info here made me feel less terrified about the eggs being contaminated but not enough that i want to resume eating them just yet.
(Unless the dishes are flaking and chipping then they're safe ish. However I'd be closely inspecting them before each use cuz i get paranoid)
Thanks for starting this thread!