Exposure Assessment of Airborne Total Dust, Respirable Dust, and Ammonia and Residential Proximity to Confined Animal Feeding Operations

Field research was conducted in the Yakima Valley region of South Central Washington State in regards to Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) and their effects on the surrounding community to address multiple environmental health stressors as well as citizens’ health concerns. Major CAFO operations have been known to produce toxic by-products such as ammonia and subsequent dust particles due to the congregation of animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area.

Very little research has been conducted in regards to populations and their proximal location to CAFO’s and the correlation of triggers and precursors to respiratory and other health concerns due to the byproducts of these operations.

To address this questions, ammonia and respirable dust samples were collected over approximately one year from the Summer of 2011 to Summer of 2012 , on 14 sites located 1km to 6km from CAFO’s in the Yakima Valley. Impregnated filters were installed in a sampling manifold, collected, weighed, and compared to the initial weight of the filters to determine the level of ammonia and respirable dust at different distances from CAFO’s.