Oral

Vertically integrated industrial animal production particularly industrial hog production has expanded rapidly in North America and around the world, rapidly replacing traditional forms of animal agriculture. Public health consequences of this transformation, including antibiotic resistance, air pollution, contamination of surface and groundwater, nutrition, and threats to the social and built environments of rural communities, are receiving increasing attention. Industrial hog production has become a major environmental justice and health problem in the state of North Carolina. This session addresses the impacts of industrial swine production facilities on neighboring populations that are disproportionately low income, African American and Latino. We will describe the types of air pollutants released from industrial hog operations and methods used to assess and map community exposure to hog farm air pollution. We will also discuss the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and epidemiological methods to quantify the levels of hog farm air pollution, examine human exposure to coarse particles and odors, and potential impacts on respiratory health, immune functioning, and quality of life. Finally, we will discuss the use of ethnographic methods to investigate policy-relevant public health issues and implications of this work to develop better environmental and public health standards.

Session Objectives: 1. Understand the basic structure of industrial hog operations and their waste management systems and some of the air pollutants released from these operations that present environmental justice and public health concerns. 2. Appreciate how community-based participatory research and epidemiologic methods can be used to measure levels of air pollutants at neighboring homes, quantify human exposure, and assess potential impacts on respiratory health, immune function, and quality of life. 3. Describe ethnographic methods used to investigate policy-relevant public health issues associated with industrial hog production.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing