this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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Unleaded gas became standard in the 70s. If you live in a dense city that was built 40+ years ago and eat eggs daily and are a small child, you may reach the non-recomended intake amount, barely.
Most people with a backyard big enough for chickens don't live in the urban areas that had such dense lead exposure anyways
A few thoughts on that. Unleaded started in 1975. I'd like to know when it reached 50% of the vehicles but googling doesn't give me that. Assuming 20 years for the entire fleet to turn over, that would give 1985 for 50%. I think you want 25% or less leaded cars until you don't have too much lead in the air, so that goes to about 1990. The pollution didn't end immediately at the city limits, so the burbs that would be built on the next mile or so would still be on polluted land. So I think that gets you to houses built 1995+ to even 2000+ to get to uncontaminated land (depending on how fast your city was growing).
I know around here the houses with decent backyards were built in the 70s to 80s. In the 90s the yards were getting small, and nowadays they are almost nonexistent. So the best suburbs for chickens are 80s and earlier. Which is also the contaminated land.
Last thought is that they keep saying that there is no safe level of lead exposure.
I was thinking Nixon banned it in 1970, but that was paint apparently, it appears the partial bans started in 85 on gas, and complete ban was done under Clinton in 96. I don't know anyone with chickens on a lot smaller than a acre, but maybe that's just a regional thing around me. I can't see how you could have free range chickens on a quarter acre lot, they'd just fly over privacy fences and piss off neighbors Id assume. But maybe three are more people doing that than I knew
It's less about gas and more about cars. They mandated new cars run on unleaded gas in 1975. While it was technically possible to convert a leaded car to run on unleaded gas, it wasn't done in any substantial numbers. So we had to wait for leaded cars to wear out and be replaced with new cars that ran on unleaded. That's why I said 20 years for the car fleet to turn over.
Backyard chickens depends a lot on local laws, most cities ban them just because. But if a city allows them, afaik you don't need much room.
Mine have a 20ftx10ft run that's covered, and I leave the gate open so they can go out when they want and explore the woods behind. It's an acre lot that I just rent half the duplex. Neighbors on all sides like them. They all get free eggs. One neighbor got yelled at by his wife though because he was buying food for them to put over by his truck so theyd come around more and hang out, which means of course they are more likely to shit near where they park there vehicles. obligatory forest chickens:
And about nobody is raising chickens in an urban environment.
We are "uptown" for lack of a better description, not the more expensive part but quite close to downtown and do have a yard, our neighbors keep chickens and it's protected inside the city, you are allowed to raise them and the feral ones are also protected by law, you can't just take them and make Coq au Vin.
Community chickens? Like community gardens.
We have a lot of backyard chicken farms in Vancouver.
Suburbs don't really count.
If the suburbs were around in the 80s, they were exposed to the lead.
I'm not talking about the suburbs. I live by Commercial drive, I have neighbours with backyard chickens.
Edit: For those who don't know Vancouver, Commercial drive is about a 15 minute bike ride from the heart of downtown.