Pigs' smell it's more than nauseating!

    Do you know hog farms? If so, have you ever considered that their smell may have consequences for our health? Indeed you might think that it’s disgusting, and makes you feel sick, but researchers have discovered that people who live near such farms experience health problems due to the pollution this farms emit.

   The research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives demonstrated that neighbors of animal farms, particularly pig farms, have higher blood pressure in contrast to the population who do not live near to animal farms.  This rise in the blood pressure is provoked by dust, allergens and other thousands of organic compounds which are emitted into the air from animal farms.  

   It is worth to mention, however, that the study did not stated whether the rise in blood pressure was dangerous or not, but there may be health issues related to living near hog farms. Another previous study made in North Carolina found that the odor from animal farms causes stress and negative mood states in residents.

   A similar situation happened in Chile in Freirina a couple of months ago, do you remember it? There, Agrosuper installed a farm with half a million pigs. The smell was intolerable for citizens who protested to shut it down (for more information, click here). Although we can think of the obvious consequences such as mood changes, now we know it goes beyond psychological consequences.

   If you lived in a town where a hog farm is about to start working, what would you do? 

Click here for the detail of the study. For more information, click here.