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Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key; expected to remain a hurricane as it moves across central FL; Groups file an emergency lawsuit to reopen FL voter registration amid hurricanes; ND wildfires: Heavy damage to cropland; importance of early warnings; Report: 67 PA counties boom for low unemployment, job growth, wage increase.

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President Biden denounces disinformation about federal disaster response. Experts address concerns about how hurricanes impact voting, and activists left and right question VP Harris' stance on meat.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Unsafe IL feed facilities harm workers, compromise public health

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Friday, August 16, 2024   

A new study shows more than 1 million tons of animal waste is produced every year in the U.S.

Consumers' desire for more animal protein and better efficiency to reduce world hunger are a few of the reasons for the increase in concentrated animal feeding operations, and opponents said the emissions the large operations produce pose a risk to public health. Confined animal manure, waste, and urine fall onto slatted floors into a manure pit and are then piped into a pond or "manure lagoon."

Elise Pohl, a graduate student in global public health at the Queen Mary University of London, explained the disposal process.

"They take that manure and they pipe it into trucks to fertilize land," Pohl pointed out. "While it is sitting in that lagoon, it emits several different components: ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, endotoxins, carbon dioxide."

Pohl noted the facilities usually have no ventilation system, which permits particulate matter to float in the air amid feces and dust.

The Illinois Environmental Council said the state has 30,000 livestock operations, including an estimated 500 large concentrated animal feeding operations, one of the highest numbers of large-scale factory farms in the country. Large-scale ag producers said they are trying to meet consumer demand and are constantly looking for ways to be more environmentally friendly.

Research has shown employees exposed to manure pit gases have higher rates of respiratory illnesses. As many as 70% of exposed workers developed acute bronchitis due to a lack of occupational health and safety measures.

Pohl emphasized the health risks do not stop there.

"The front-line workers that are exposed to things like avian influenza and antimicrobial resistant genes, and they can take that home, expose their family and friends," Pohl outlined. "Then it's further spread into the community."

The study showed residents living near the large operations had higher rates of infant mortality and adults were diagnosed with more cases of tuberculosis, anemia, kidney disease and increased rates of hospital admissions than residents living in ZIP Codes with no large swine operations.


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Hurricane Milton grew to become a major hurricane on the morning of Oct. 7, 2024. (AWS S3 Explorer/Wikimedia Commons)

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