My smelly chicken run...

[antiquebuff]

I agree with Spatcher, read the info. The food grade DE I use will not cut you anywhere use it. Its as soft as baby powder!
Good luck with your coop and run!

 

[GallowayFarms]

Ok I am not scaring people and I have done my own research. If you read I said to make sure you get food grade DE and to wear a mask. It will cut your hands just like pumce powder and sand if you go rubbing it on things bare handed.

And here is some of the research I have found.

The absorbent qualities of diatomite can result in a significant drying of the hands, if handled without gloves. The saltwater (industrial) form contains a highly crystalline form of silica, resulting in sharp edges. The sharpness of this version of the material makes it dangerous to breathe and a dust mask is recommended when working with it.

The type of hazard posed by inhalation depends on the form of the silica. Crystalline silica poses a serious inhalation hazard because it can cause silicosis. Amorphous silica can cause dusty lungs, but does not carry the same degree of risk as crystalline silica. Food-grade diatomite generally contains very low percentages of crystalline silica. Diatomite produced for pool filters is treated with heat, causing the formerly amorphous silicon dioxide to assume its crystalline form.

In the United States, the crystalline silica content in the dusts is regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and there are guidelines for the maximum amounts allowable in the product and in the air near the breathing zone of workers.

If you are around flour enough and breath enough in you can get dusty lungs also. So telling people it is completely safe and to go throwing it about in the air without wearing protection is irresponsible and dangerous. Yes you can ingest food grade DE. Bc it is treated.

Flour dust poses a respiratory hazard that can sometimes take up to 30 years to show symptoms in workers. Flour dust also contains allergens that expose workers who weigh or pour flour, or who operate dough mixers. One of the most potent allergens in flour is alpha-amylase, a naturally occurring enzyme in wheat flour that's used to break up large starch molecules and speeds up the activity of yeast.

Asthma is the main risk to workers' health from being exposed to flour dust. Once a worker becomes sensitized to the allergen, even a small amount can trigger an asthma attack with life-threatening symptoms such as wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and/or coughing. In British Columbia, the eight-hour occupational exposure limit (OEL) for flour dust is 0.5 milligrams per cubic metre of air. Although the OEL will protect from long-term respiratory disease, it is unlikely that it will prevent occupational asthma as even very low levels to the allergic component can provoke an asthma attack.

So have you warned people with asthma not to use DE? Since you say it is as safe as flour? You my friend need to do your research.

 

[spatcher]

And therein lies the problem...confusing it with non-food grade DE. PermaGuard Codex Food Grade DE is FDA approved. If you breathe it, it is comparable to road dust and just as "dangerous"! It can dry out your hands but you are not going to bleed to death if you get it on your hands. Can you imagine ingesting it yourself everyday if it could cut you? If you have ever eaten breakfast cereals or Bisquick etc, you have already ingested it. It is used as a non-caking agent in these products and because it is added to the grain before processing, is not required to be listed in the ingredients! Non food grade can and will kill you if you breathe it! Non food grade is 65% crystalline silica (the bad stuff). Food grade DE CANNOT have more than 3% crystalline silica to be considered food grade. PermaGuard has less than one half of one percent! Thats what I have found in MY research!

 

[ChickenToes]

Um...yeah....I scatter DE with my bare hands all the time, and I don't look like I've been in a knife fight...

 

[LynneP]

Most tack and feed shops also sell 'Stable Boy' and 'Stall Dri'. I started using DE for the first time and I am *very* impressed!

 

[spatcher]

Misinformation is worse than no information!

 

[WikkitGateFarm]

Quote:
Pot, Meet Kettle. Kettle? May I introduce Mr. Pot.

 

[GallowayFarms]

There is a difference between eating someone and breathing it in. DE and flour can both be eaten. You inhale it and it can damage your lungs. Just like snake venom. If a snake bites you , you can die from it. But if you drink snake venom, it is harmless unless you have an ulcer.

I know personally, I wouldn't go stand by a road and inhale road dust everyday and think it was good for me or not dangerous.

And I didn't say it would make you look like you were in a knife fight. I said it would make tiny cuts in your hands. And if you were rubbing it on roosts that are covered in chicken fert. that can carry Salmonella.

I just think it is bad form to tell people or offer up suggestions to people and say it is safe as flour etc. and when i try to warn people it is not as safe as you say you get all bent out of shape.

If you didn't have to worry about it OSHA wouldn't put out warnings not to breath it. I have seen posts in these forums about people using flour sifters to put it down which is going to make dust, and not one person saying put a dust mask on. One post says they put it down everyday. I am sure it has application rates on the bag that people need to read.

Oh well. So much for telling people to be careful.

 

[antiquebuff]

I agree with you, you need to use a mask just like you should when putting out 7 dust or similar dusting agent. It pays to be safe. We use masks for any weed killers also and even when we weed eat.!

 

[lovethechickens]

Seems like you both have good points. In the end, the world we live in is bad for us. I dont think by using food grade de that you are in any more trouble than you are from inhaling the air you breath when driving down the freeway. You inhale LOADS of toxins every day. If you want to be cautious, everytime you go anywhere but home, you should wear a hazmat suit. Its just not realistic to do so. In the end, we are all gonna have cuts on our hands from something, and crap in our lungs from something else. And then,,,,,,,,we are gonna die anyways!

So use it if you want to, and dont if you dont! I dont think there is any misinformation here, just different ways of handling the facts.