Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
“Numerous studies document serious
respiratory problems among CAFO workers,
including chronic bronchitis and non-allergic
asthma in about 25 percent of confinement
swine workers. Workers exposed to the
potent neurotoxin hydrogen sulfide at levels
only slightly higher than those at which its
odor becomes detectable (5.0 ppm vs .025
ppm), have been found to have accelerated
deterioration of neurobehavioral function;
and [s]cientists convened first by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
and more recently by the University of Iowa
and Iowa State University, agree CAFO air
emissions may constitute a hazard to public
health, in addition to workers' health.”
22
—Excerpted from the American Public Health
Association's Precautionary Moratorium on New
Concentrated Animal Feed Operations
stitute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As the Farm
Safety Association has also observed: “Since the increased use
of manure storage facilities in agriculture there have been numer-
ous instances where a farmer, family member, or employee has
asphyxiated or succumbed to toxic gases from the storage. Cases
have been documented where several individuals have died while
attempting to rescue a coworker or family member from an under-
ground pit or a spreader tank.”
A number of NIOSH reports document worker fatalities caused
by exposure to the chemicals in manure pits. The agency even is-
sued an alert in 1990 entitled
Preventing Deaths of Farm Workers
