CHHE Sponsors First Workshop

January 19, 2011 oitdesign

The Center successfully sponsored its first workshop in Fall 2010 at the McKimmon Conference Center at NC State University a joint effort with NIEHS and NIOSH. The workshop was entitled, “Evaluating the Health Effects to Local Communities of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)”.

Workshop topics included: an overview of CAFOs, respiratory and allergic health effects, fate and transport of CAFO associated ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, inflammatory responses from complex components of dust, estrogenic compounds in effluent from CAFOs, MRSA and other infectious outcomes, antibiotic resistance and endotoxin models and translation to human health.

The objectives of the meeting were:

To gain a better understanding of the transport and fate of CAFO associated compounds and pathogens and their potential risk to the health of local communities.
To identify gaps in our knowledge/science that will lead to sound scientific conclusions.
To encourage development of biologic models to investigate potential mechanisms and provide linkage of exposure assessment and epidemiologic studies.

A meeting summary has been submitted for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives. The day long workshop was well attended with over 75 participants from numerous states, including North Carolina, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Nevada.