Another egg lead test

I had our eggs tested for lead again, and they came up pretty much the same as last year - .2 and .3 ppm (last year the results were .2, .3, and .4 ppm). The chemist washed one of the eggs before testing it and ended up with the lower result. She suggested that we wash the eggs in the future before eating them. That lower result could also be because the egg came from a different chicken, but I often wash our eggs anyway because they tend to get dirty. (By the way, if a backyard egg is dirty you should it in warm water - cold water pulls bacteria into the shell. No need to wash a clean backyard egg. Wash eggs just before using, because eggs have a natural coating that keeps them fresh. You don't need to wash store-bought eggs at all - they have already been washed.)

So, disappointingly, fencing off the neighbor's garage didn't help. The lead must be in the soil of our backyard, which reinforces the need for Melina to wash her hands after playing in the dirt. Which she doesn't do much anyway, preferring to climb trees.

These results aren't terribly bad from an adult perspective (we could eat something like 7 eggs a day without reaching the maximum level recommended by the FDA) although of course lead isn't good in any amount. The benefit of eating backyard eggs (higher Omega-3s, etc.) might arguably outweigh those risks. But it looks like it's still store-bought eggs for Melina.