Asthma Danger To Rural ChildrenIOWA Public Radio
December 12, 2004
Children living close to large factory hog farms have a higher than normal incidence of ASTHMA than children who do not live in such areas. Those children living close to factory farms that use antibiotics on the swine incur the highest rate of ASTHMA. This information was reported on IOWA Public Radio Friday, December 10th and is from a study in part by Dr. James A. Merchant. Dr. Merchant is Dean of the University of IOWA College of Public Health in IOWA City. The College of Public Health at the U of I teaches and publishes research on causes of rural illness and prevention as well as environmental health policy. They also have published information on "Cancer In IOWA", the "IOWA Birth Defects Registry Annual Report" and "Environmental Health Science Research".
Connections between use of pesticides and prostate cancer are laid out in their 2004 College of Public Health Research Publication. On page 16 entitled "All in a Day's Work" it states: "In IOWA individual farm holders have 27% increased risk of prostate cancer, while commercial pesticide applicators have a 41% increased risk."
(See: www.public-health.uiowa.edu/news/pubs)
(Also see: www.ehsrc.org and www.aghealth.org)
