Backyard hens' eggs contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs, research finds

[sl8]

https://theconversation.com/backyard-hens-eggs-contain-40-times-more-lead-on-average-than-shop-eggs-research-finds-187442

Backyard hens’ eggs contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs, research finds

Published: August 8, 2022 8.52pm

There’s nothing like the fresh eggs from your own hens, the more than 400,000 Australians who keep backyard chooks will tell you. Unfortunately, it’s often not just freshness and flavour that set their eggs apart from those in the shops.

Our newly published research found backyard hens’ eggs contain, on average, more than 40 times the lead levels of commercially produced eggs. Almost one in two hens in our Sydney study had significant lead levels in their blood. Similarly, about half the eggs analysed contained lead at levels that may pose a health concern for consumers.

Even low levels of lead exposure are considered harmful to human health, including among other effects cardiovascular disease and decreased IQ and kidney function. Indeed, the World Health Organization has stated there is no safe level of lead exposure.

So how do you know whether this is a likely problem in the eggs you’re getting from backyard hens? It depends on lead levels in your soil, which vary across our cities. We mapped the areas of high and low risk for hens and their eggs in our biggest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – and present these maps here.

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[liberal N proud]

1. Shop eggs are from caged chickens

That is the downside to mass production of eggs

[RockRaven]

2. Should be noted that this research was from Australia and they banned leaded gasoline

in 2002. They were very late to do so, compared to other countries. How much that impacts the relevance of this study...

[TheRealNorth]

5. That's what I was wondering....

How their regulations around environmental lead are different from ours.

[Amishman]

3. A study in Australia - which has high lead levels on their soil

So no shit free range chickens will have higher lead levels

Old article on lead levels in Australian gardens
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-06/toxic-vegetable-gardens-lead-levels-soil-new-study/100120170

[brooklynite]

4. There's a missing category here

This article refers to eggs from PERSONALLY OWNED backyard chickens, not eggs from free-roaming chickens at small production farms (the kind you can get at a green market)

[SharonClark]

6. Caused by lead paint?

Do older neighborhoods in the US have similar issues with soil because I’ve never heard about that, just kids eating paint chips.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. 150 years of Elmer Fudds