Is the nano lubricant used on our pellets safe to eat?
The lubricant is mineral-based and inert, meaning it does not react to ordinary chemicals (including water). The material Safety Data Sheet classifies it as a potential irritant (as opposed to a toxin), with no carcinogenicity. Testing has been unable to define the dosage that would kill 50% of rats who are force-fed this material (called the LD50), but they stopped testing at about 1 gram per 1 pound of bodyweight. That level translates to about 180 grams for a 180 pound person. We use about 80 grams per ton of pellets. For a #6 pellet, the coating weighs about 0.000012 g. If your bird is killed by 3 pellets and all of the coating goes into the meat you eat, your dose would be 0.000036 g, which would be about /5,000,000th of the irritant dosage. Remember that this is at one sitting, since the coating is inert, flushes from the body, and does not build up in tissue. I don’t remember how many ducks are taken in the US each year, but you would have to eat most of them all at once in orde
