Oil spray cuts hazards at animal center

BALTIMORE, Nov 28, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Johns Hopkins scientists report good results in studying an oil mixture designed to reduce airborne levels of particulate matter at animal feeding operations.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health evaluated an oil spray developed to cut the airborne health hazards at a concentrated animal feeding operation.

Chronic respiratory illnesses are a serious concern for workers, as well as for the surrounding communities and the animals themselves.

The researchers measured indoor air pollution at a mid-Atlantic swine facility and found 10-fold reductions in amounts of dust and bacteria in a barn where the spray was used, compared with an identical barn where no spray was used.

"From the perspective of worker and community health, this is a step in the right direction," said Ana Rule, the study's lead author and a doctoral candidate at the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. But, she added, "this technology addresses only a portion of the hazards workers and communities face from concentrated animal feeding facilities."

The study appears in the online edition of Environmental Science and Technology.

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