North Carolinians who live near large hog farms -- known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs -- have higher death rates from a variety of causes than comparable state residents who live further away from such facilities.
The findings, led by Duke Health scientists and published online Sept. 18 in the North Carolina Medical Journal, do not establish that hog farms cause higher risk of certain diseases and increased death rates, but they do point to potential health risks that warrant attention and action.
“Life expectancy in North Carolina communities near hog CAFOs remains low, even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors that are known to affect people’s health and lifespan,” said senior author H. Kim Lyerly, M.D., George Barth Gellar Professor of Cancer Research, professor of surgery, pathology and immunology and director of the Environmental Health Scholar Program at Duke.
“This study provides a necessary road map to better understand how poor health outcomes persist in these communities, which are uniquely affected by demographic, socio-economic, behavioral, and access-to-care factors in addition to the presence of hog CAFOs,” Lyerly said.
In their study, Lyerly and colleagues, including lead author Julia Kravchenko, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, compared the health outcomes between North Carolina communities without hog CAFOs and southeastern N.C. communities located in zip codes with swine concentration as high as 215 animals per square kilometer or higher.
Read Complete article at Duke Health News