Lead in oyster shell?

[alpinefarm]

I've heard messages in the media about human grade oyster shell sometimes being contaminated with lead.
I'm wondering how to make sure the oyster shell I buy for my flock is lead free?
And how to test an already purchased bag?

 

[ranchhand]

Do you have a link to any information about it? I live in oyster country and haven't seen or heard anything about it. Of course, we don't eat the shells either! I am curious though, because if the shells have lead, would that not mean it's possibly coming from the water?

I also don't know what "human grade" means either. Thanks!

 

[alpinefarm]

Quote:
I don't have a link at my fingertips, so sorry. Oyster shell is used as a calcium supplement for people and I heard on a news report a while back that some of it contains lead contamination and to use other types of calcium.

 

[alpinefarm]

Anybody?
Nobody but me hear anything about this?

 

[CARS]

Quote:
No. (a link would be handy)

 

[alpinefarm]

Quote:
No. (a link would be handy)

What I heard was radio, I haven't seen anything online.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
No. (a link would be handy)

What I heard was radio, I haven't seen anything online.

If you do a search you will see numerous pages on it. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unless you ingest a lot of lead, it is not an issue.

If it wasn't for lawyers, we wouldn't be concerned about lead, asbestos, etc.

 

[B'villechicken]

I just did a literature search on this at a large medical university library in Syracuse, NY. There was a article written on the lead content of calcium supplements in the Journal of the American Medical Assiciation (JAMA 2000;284:1425-1429). This 2000 article was accompanied by an editor's note. This is, as you have seen here on many threads, is a very emotional issue. The authors of the above cited article concluded that while the lead levels were low, that any exposure was concerning. The editor's note, however said that lead and calcium combined should not pose much of a hazard as the two essentially cancel each other out. This set off a flurry of letters to the editor of JAMA with people lined up on both sides. There was another study done in Brasil that compared two groups of people and followed lead levels in the blood stream. It concluded that there was no appreciable increase in lead levels from oral calcium supplements.
Now for my personal opinion: I tend to believe that a small amount of lead exposure is inevitable and indeed unavoidable. While science is not sure what level of lead is safe, we do know that the present levels that have been set by the health department are workable and practical as far as limiting significant exposure. I do not think we need to be concerned about the low lead levels in the oyster shell calcium that we give our chickens. This is just my humble opinion though.

David

 

[alpinefarm]

Quote:
I disagree. I am personally very glad that both scientists and legal people work on human and animal health issues.

 

[alpinefarm]

B'villechicken :

I just did a literature search on this at a large medical university library in Syracuse, NY. There was a article written on the lead content of calcium supplements in the Journal of the American Medical Assiciation (JAMA 2000;284:1425-1429). This 2000 article was accompanied by an editor's note. This is, as you have seen here on many threads, is a very emotional issue. The authors of the above cited article concluded that while the lead levels were low, that any exposure was concerning. The editor's note, however said that lead and calcium combined should not pose much of a hazard as the two essentially cancel each other out. This set off a flurry of letters to the editor of JAMA with people lined up on both sides. There was another study done in Brasil that compared two groups of people and followed lead levels in the blood stream. It concluded that there was no appreciable increase in lead levels from oral calcium supplements.
Now for my personal opinion: I tend to believe that a small amount of lead exposure is inevitable and indeed unavoidable. While science is not sure what level of lead is safe, we do know that the present levels that have been set by the health department are workable and practical as far as limiting significant exposure. I do not think we need to be concerned about the low lead levels in the oyster shell calcium that we give our chickens. This is just my humble opinion though.

David

Thank you for your insights. Do you have any suggestions on how to go about testing oyster shell? With the Chinese manufacturing scare recently, I realize there are test kits available. Just not sure how to apply such things to a raw item.​