Free range eggs contain a little something extra: pollutants

[Donnachaidh]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/06/free-range-eggs-contaminated-with-dioxins.html

Here’s some disconcerting news for health-conscious eaters who favor eggs from free-range hens: A Taiwanese study found that the eggs contain much higher levels of industrial pollutants than eggs laid by caged hens.

Freerange The researchers focused on two types of pollutants, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (known collectively as PCCD/Fs), which are released into the environment by municipal waste incinerators, factories and other industrial sources. A report from the International Program on Chemical Safety says the chemicals have caused cancer, liver damage, problems with the skin and nervous system, reproductive problems and other undesirable effects in animals.

The researchers collected 60 free range eggs from farms in southern Taiwan and compared them with 120 eggs from caged hens that were purchased throughout the country. Then they measured the levels of 17 kinds of PCCD/Fs.

For the free range eggs, the levels ranged from 6.18 to 41.3 picograms per gram of lipid, with an average value of 17.5 pg/g. Levels for the caged eggs ranged from 2.85 to 19.8 pg/g, with an average value of 7.65.

The researchers also calculated the toxic equivalency quotient (TEQ) for both kinds of eggs using a system endorsed by the World Health Organization. The levels for the free range eggs were 5.7 times higher than the levels for the caged eggs.

In addition, 17% of the free range eggs had levels that European regulators have deemed unsafe for consumption. All of the caged eggs were easily in the safe zone, the researchers found. The results were published in the latest edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.


More at the link ---

[aquart]

1. Pollution levels in Taiwan must be fascinating.

[HereSince1628]

2. I don't know what my exposure to Tiawanese eggs is

And I don't know how environmental conditions there and in the US compare.

So many potential questions...so few available answers.

[geardaddy]

3. I'm not surprised, if the study was conducted in Taiwan.

I lived there for four years and it is a polluted disaster there.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Wonder what the levels are in the free-range humans in those same areas.

Nice scare piece.

[kestrel91316]

5. No one is forcing you to buy or eat free-range eggs. If you prefer

conventional agricultural products, go ahead and consume them. Just don't you and your little friends work quite so hard at trying to make it impossible for the rest of us to consume them.

[NeedleCast]

6. Luckily I don't eat Taiwanese free-range eggs

[Warpy]

7. I live in an old area of town

and some of the houses likely sported lead paint at one time or another, so I'm sure the gardens and backyard chickens are both giving their keepers a hefty dose of lead.

This isn't Taiwan, though, and our levels of industrial pollutants aren't nearly as bad. One good effect of de industrialization has been to keep the environment a little cleaner, even as too many of us are too poor to enjoy it.

[hedgehog]

8. I have two kids living in old houses in the city. Both are planting lots of

sunflowers because sun flowers will draw up and concentrate lead from the soil.

[Warpy]

11. They need to get soil tests done

because they don't want to poison the birds, either, and there are only so many sunflower bouquets you can have on your kitchen table before you get sick of 'em.

In my case, the lead is probably concentrated directly adjacent to the house and around an area where there has always been a garden shed on the property. Much of the yard is likely safe. The problem is that chickens tend to run all over the place and that wind deposits nasty crap all over the place.

In any case, our desert drought persists out west and it's just not economically feasible to grow gardens now. People do them because it's the only way to get decent tomatoes around here.

[TheMadMonk]

14. Odds are more than good that you do. However, lead based paints which...

...are in good condition and painted over are not an issue.

Down behind the garden shed (or other isolated/half hidden area) there will be a patch of ground which grows nothing except possibly weeds where paintbrushes and rollers were cleaned. Either dig it up and get rid of the soil or pave it over. You might also find areas deliberately poisoned by diesel or old oil. Same deal on disposal. However, it will recover eventually without intervention.

Exposed soil under the eaves of the house will also have it's share of lead, both from paint, weathered and stripped over the years, and from leaded fuels of yesteryear washed off the roof by rain. Plant the sunflowers here.

Be far more afraid of any asbestos that might be in older buildings. Either have it professionally removed. Or at the very least, give it a good coat of paint or laquer to stabilise it.

Filling cracks and gaps in old floorboards is good on several grounds even if it does take away a little from "character". Blocking draughts is always good, but consider how much mercury from broken thermometers can accumulate over the years. Also one less place for smaller vermin and other nasties to accumulate.


Chronic levels of pollution in 1st world nations might well be lower, but don't ever make any bets on any given site. Particularly if it has seen almost any sort of commercial or industrial use.

[Javaman]

9. Sadly, no matter how hard we try, everything contains pollutants...

the issue is to try and minimize them.

There was a fascinating article in National Geographic a few years ago. The writer was given a very specific type of blood test. It was to check to see what types of pollutants were in his system. It was able to detect trace amounts of just about all known pollutants.

Sadly, anyone who flies, will have a certain amount of fire retardant in their bodies. Anyone born prior to 1975 will have a certain amount of DDT in their bodies. The list goes on and on.

Sadly, the overwhelming discovery was this, just about everyone in the US has some level of, get this, rocket fuel residue in their bodies.

Really scary crap.

[mod mom]

10. I wonder who funded the TAIWANESE study-factory farm corporations?

[Frustratedlady]

12. The corporate egg-laying operations.

I'll still go for free-range chickens and eggs produced in Iowa. You can tell the difference by looking at them. The chicken meat is pink and plump...the egg yolks are dark yellow and the whites hold their shape, not like the corporate eggs which run across the skillet with yolks of pale yellow. You can tell the difference in the height of cakes where free-range eggs are used. They are higher and richer.

If I die from eating free-range eggs/chickens, I'll die with a smile on my face, as I will have enjoyed my meals and not stressed over corporate junk. I've seen enough of that in my lifetime.

[moriah]

13. News flash! Breastmilk contains all sorts of pollutants!

Yep, if a place is polluted, living beings will be polluted.

Doesn't make chickens any less effective bug control, and since I eat eggs maybe once a month... I'm not too worried about eating free range eggs. I'm sure I get more dioxins in a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Because they actually use real whole cream. Oh, the horror!