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Perry Beeman
Dozens of Iowans pleaded with a state environmental panel Tuesday to limit what they called sickening fumes from livestock confinement facilities.
They came from different parts of the state bearing the same message and a petition with more than 5,000 signatures. Fumes from the farms are making them sick, they said, and the state should do something about it.
"We know they are dangerous," said Carroll Harless of Iowa Falls, who spent two weeks at Mayo Clinic searching for answers to his medical problems. He said he has battled headaches that seem to come and go with the hog odors.
"Corporate factory farms won't be good neighbors unless we force them to be," Frank Jones of Bloomfield told the commission.
The nonprofit organization Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement ran the petition drive and developed proposed regulations based on some already in place in Minnesota and other states.
The limits would focus primarily on ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, among the most dangerous chemicals emitted from the confinements.
Nine speakers told commissioners of studies by researchers at the University of Iowa, the University of North Carolina and the state of Minnesota that suggested there may be a link between emissions from the farms and neighbors' health problems. People living close to large confinement operations reported higher than normal incidence of lung problems, headaches, stomach problems and depression, for example.
Farm groups have noted that studies have not proven a direct link, however. Several were based on scientific polls without corresponding measurements of chemicals coming off the lagoons and storage pits at the farms.
Don DuBois of Madrid said he suspects hog farms have made his 9-year-old daughter sick. "Every time the wind is from the wrong direction, I have to rush her to the doctor," said DuBois, who has developed migraine problems.
Pete Hamlin, Iowa's top air-quality official, said the state staff will review the petition and make a recommendation to the Environmental Protection Commission within two months.
http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c5903220/13522153.html
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