This study investigated the environmental conditions on pig farms and the respiratory health of pig farmers and their immunological response to airborne contaminants. Airborne concentrations of dust and ammonia were measured in 20 pig houses; viable microorganisms, endotoxins, and aeroallergens were measured in 6 of these houses, chosen to represent the range in dustiness. The 29 farmers employed on the farms completed a questionnaire and underwent lung function tests; 24 of them provided blood samples for the measurement of specific IgE and IgG antibody to extracts of pig squames and urine, feed components, and bacterial isolates. Mean airborne dust and ammonia concentrations in the pig houses ranged from 1.66 to 21.04 mg/m3 and from 1.50 to 13.23 ppm, respectively. Factors affecting these concentrations include time of year, feed systems used, and levels of ventilation. There was no direct relationship between airborne dust and ammonia concentrations. Airborne microorganisms ranged from 10(5) to more than 10(7) colony-forming units (cfu)/m3; most were bacteria, with few fungi or thermophilic actinomycetes isolated. Gram-positive bacterial genera (Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, and Bacillus spp.) predominated. Concentrations of endotoxin in collected airborne dust were low. Work-related respiratory symptoms, typically chest tightness/wheeze and nasal and eye irritation, were reported by 23 of the 29 workers. Three farmers had specific IgE to pig squames or urine and eight to feed components but none to the microbial extracts. Specific IgG to pig squames or urine and to feed components was demonstrated in 14 and 9 workers, respectively. Specific IgE responses occurred mainly in subjects with chest tightness or wheeze, although specific IgG responses were not related to symptoms.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Chlorinated organic solvents introduced to unlined lagoons at an industrial waste‐water treatment plant in the Inner Piedmont of South Carolina resulted in ground‐water contamination of a fractured‐rock aquifer. Part of the ground‐water contamination discharges to Little Rocky Creek, downgradient from the waste‐water treatment plant. Passive vapor collectors were buried in the bottom sediment of the creek to locate areas where ground water contaminated with volatile organic compounds was discharging to the creek. High concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found in passive vapor collectors in an area where VOCs were known to be discharging from ground water to surface water. This area was also a site where very low frequency electromagnetic anomalies (interpreted as fracture zones) intersected the creek or converged near the creek. The data show that passive vapor collectors in bottom sediment of Little Rocky Creek provided information on the location of fractures that were discharging contaminated ground water to surface water.
Environmental conditions and the initial attempt to recover JP‐4 jet fuel from a shallow aquifer at a tank farm in Hanahan, South Carolina, in 1975. allowed the jet fuel to become stratigraphically trapped below the water table. The trapped jet fuel remained an undetected source of dissolved hydrocarbon contamination in shallow ground water in the area for 17 years. The trapped jet fuel was located when a variety of chemical, hydrologic. geologic, and historical evidence led investigators to install and sample deeper wells. These findings emphasize the need to use an integrated approach lo evaluating the data when determining the extent of contamination and planning fuel recovery operations in a lithologically heterogeneous aquifer.
Analysis of the vapor in passive vapor samplers retrieved from a streambed in fractured rock terrain implied that volatile organic carbon (VOC) discharge from ground water to surface water substantially increased following installation of a contaminant recovery well using air rotary drilling. The air rotary technique forced air into the aquifer near the stream. The injection produced an upward hydraulic gradient that appears to have transported water and contaminants from deeper parts of the aquifer through fractures into shallow parts of the aquifer. Once in the shallow flow regime, the contamination was transported to the stream, where it discharged during the next several weeks following well installation. After the recovery well was activated and began continuously pumping contaminated ground water to a treatment facility, the VOC concentrations in the stream bottom passive vapor samplers decreased to below detectable concentrations, suggesting that the withdrawal had captured the contaminated ground water that previously had discharged to the stream.
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