Air quality assessments in the vicinity of swine production facilities

Abstract

With the transition to increasingly larger swine production facilities, nearby residents have voiced concerns about environmental contamination, odor, and adverse health effects. The goal of this study was to evaluate outdoor airborne concentrations of ammonia, dust, and endotoxin in the environment near four types of swine production facilities and one control farm with no livestock. Dust and endotoxin were detected at a distance of 60 meters outside of facilities but generally, concentrations were below limits of accu-rate detection. The mean (and standard deviation) for outdoor am-monia concentrations were: 0.251 (0.064) ppm-large confinement; 0.086 (0.091) ppm-medium confinement; 0.214 (0.160) ppm-small confinement; 0.139 (0.188) ppm-small conventional; less than 0.004 ppm-control farm. While the airborne concentrations of ammonia measured outside the production facilities were below current oc-cupational health standards, it is possible that ammonia could be a physical irritant in combination with other exposures, or it could serve as a cue capable of initiating a physical response. Furthermore, ammonia may serve as a surrogate measure for other gases (sulfides) emitted by these facilities. © 1997 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.