Characterising populations living close to intensive farming and composting facilities in England

Abstract

• Bioaerosol emitted from farming and composting facilities may pose health risks.

• We describe population characteristics around these sites and infer public concern.

• Sites were mapped and overlaid with population, demographic and school data.

• Approximately 16% of the population and 15% of schools are located near these sites.

• More community health studies need to be conducted around these sites.

Bioaerosol exposure has been linked to adverse respiratory conditions. Intensive farming and composting facilities are important anthropogenic sources of bioaerosols. We aimed to characterise populations living close to intensive farming and composting facilities. We also infer whether the public are becoming more concerned about anthropogenic bioaerosol emissions, using reports of air pollution related incidents attributed to facilities. We mapped the location of 1,257 intensive farming and 310 composting facilities in England in relation to the resident population and its characteristics (sex and age), area characteristics (deprivation proxy and rural/urban classification) and school locations stratified by pre-defined distance bands from these bioaerosol sources. We also calculated the average number of air pollution related incidents per year per facility. We found that more than 16% of the population and 15% of schools are located within 4,828 m of an intensive farming facility or 4,000 m of a composting facility; few people (0.01%) live very close to these sites and tend to be older people. Close to composting facilities, populations are more likely to be urban and more deprived. The number of incidents were attributed to a small proportion of facilities; population characteristics around these facilities were similar. Results indicate that populations living near composting facilities (particularly>250 to≤4,000 m) are mostly located in urban areas (80%–88% of the population), which supports the need for more community health studies to be conducted. Results could also be used to inform risk management strategies at facilities with higher numbers of incidents.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Composting / Intensive farming / Bioaerosol / Population characteristics / Public health

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The Author(s) 2020. This article is published with open access at link.springer.com and journal.hep. com.cn