Who is looking out for rural health? Local and state health departments' responses to industrial food animal production in eight states

Industrial food animal production (IFAP), the dominant form of meat production in the U.S., involves housing often thousands of animals in close quarters. Evidence of public health concerns resulting from community exposures to air releases and water pollution from these operations continues to accumulate. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of health departments in responding to citizens' environmental health concerns. We investigated the extent to which health concerns associated with IFAP sites are reported to health departments, the nature of state and county health departments' involvement with preventing or responding to these concerns, and barriers posing challenges to successfully addressing these issues. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were held with county and state health department staff and community members in eight states with high densities (or rapid growth in number) of IFAP operations. Our interviews reveal that health department involvement in these matters is limited; political barriers, a lack of jurisdiction, and finite resources, expertise, and staff were cited as limiting factors. Community members reported difficulties in engaging health departments and other agencies to respond and manage environmental and public health concerns associated with IFAP. The findings from this study may inform future education efforts and policy measures aimed at expanding health department capacities to address gaps in health protection.