Oil mist reduces barn dust, bacteria
US - A specially developed oil mixture reduced airborne levels of particulate matter at a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.The researchers evaluated an oil spray developed to reduce the airborne health hazards at industrial feeding facilities. Chronic respiratory illnesses are a serious concern for CAFO workers, as well as for the surrounding communities and animals themselves.
The study, published in the current online edition of Environmental Science and Technology, measured indoor air pollution in a mid-Atlantic swine facility. It found 10-fold reductions in the amounts of dust and bacteria in a barn where the spray was used compared with an identical barn where no spray was used. The oil spray did not affect levels of ammonia, another pollutant generated from CAFO facilities.
"From the perspective of worker and community health, this is a step in the right direction," says Ana Rule, the study's lead author and a doctoral candidate at the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. "This technology addresses only a portion of the hazards workers and communities face from concentrated animal feeding facilities."
Source: mydna.com
29 November 2005
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