Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
amounts of manure and the byproducts contained in the waste,
including heavy metals, pathogen bacteria, and volatile gases,
are so damning to the health of factory farm workers and neigh-
boring communities that the largest association of public health
professionals, the American Public Health Association, resolved
in 2003 to urge federal, state, and local governments and public
health agencies to impose a moratorium on the construction of
new factory farms.
Studies abound demonstrating the health risks of living near
these animal factories. A 2002 report released by Iowa State Uni-
versity and the University of Iowa found that hydrogen sulfide and
ammonia emissions from factory farms can pose a health risk to
humans. In North Carolina, researchers have compared physical
health symptoms of residents in three communities—two near fac-
tory farms confining either pigs or cattle and one in another rural
area without any agricultural operations using liquid waste man-
agement systems. Residents near the pig factory farm reported
more frequent occurrences of “headache, runny nose, sore throat,
excessive coughing, diarrhea, and burning eyes.” The findings of
another study determined that neighbors of a pig factory farm also
suffered from respiratory problems, nausea, weakness, and chest
tightness. Researchers have also concluded that children attend-
ing schools near factory farms suffer elevated levels of asthma
symptoms.
Researchers have looked at the effects factory farm odors—
produced by decomposing feces, spilled feed, and urine—can
have on people living near them. They found that, compared to the
control group, individuals living near the factory farm who encoun-
tered the odors had “significantly more tension, more depression,
more anger, less vigor, more fatigue, and more confusion.”
Like many rural Americans, we've lived near pig factory farms
and have suffered for it. It is nearly impossible to have any qual-
