Lead: Next steps

NOTE: Please see followup discussion and correction here. My estimation of lead per egg was too high by a factor of 10.

So after a few days of obsessing about lead, talking about lead, and researching lead, I've come to a few conclusions.

1. We're not eating our eggs (at least, the yolks) until this thing gets cleared up. The 'total maximum daily load' that an adult should have for lead is 75 micrograms, and I figured out that one egg is about 54 micrograms. For kids under 7, the limit is *6* micrograms (and for pregnant women it's 25). So while I suppose Jeff and I could eat an occasional egg in desperation, Melina won't be getting any. Yolks.

2. I talked to my neighbor about having the lead paint safely removed from the side of her garage, and she seemed open to working on it together, so I'm going to research paint removers and follow up on that. Meanwhile the chickens are fenced off from that area. Once the lead paint is removed I'm going to remove at least 6" of topsoil in that area and replace it with compost. The soil could use some amending anyway!

3. I'm going to do soil tests on about 6 spots in our backyard to get an idea of where the lead is. I have my suspicions. Hopefully, it will be concentrated around the house, which it normally is. I'll fence those areas off.

4. I'm taking Melina to a naturopath (who is also a friend) to talk about ways to reduce lead in the body through diet and supplements. Apparently there are several effective methods out there.

5. I may still cook with egg whites from the girls, since egg whites don't take up lead at all. I will look into composting the eggs. Soil naturally has 50-100 ppm anyway, so adding an egg with 2 ppm isn't going to make a big difference. Also, someone told me you can make paint out of egg yolks. Maybe I'll take up a new hobby. It would be ironic if I had to stop eating the egg yolks because of lead paint and so I started turning the yolks into paint.

5. In about 3 months, I'll get Melina and the eggs tested again.

6. I'm going to stop obsessing now.

I'm heading out to Ithaca, NY for a few days to give a talk to seven undergraduates at Cornell (!). It will be good to have a complete change of scenery and focus on something besides heavy metals for a change.