Ammonia produced by industrial chicken and pig farming is linked to conditions including heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, type 2 diabetes, and dementia, according to the report. When slurry is spread on fields, the ammonia reacts with other pollutants to form fine particulate matter, which is blown about; this fine particulate matter is one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. People nearest to factory farms face higher exposure to ammonia pollution, but it can also reach into towns and cities.
Agriculture is responsible for 89 per cent of UK ammonia emissions, with ammonia used to make fertilisers but released into the atmosphere at levels far beyond those ecosystems can absorb. Microscopic particles from ammonia pollution penetrate the lungs and bloodstream. Ministers are rewriting planning rules to make it easier to build intensive livestock farms despite local opposition, after lobbying by poultry industry chiefs.
Factory farming has already expanded in the past decade, and plans for 12 more poultry sheds exist. An application for two more poultry units in the Wye Valley area, near ancient woodlands said to be sensitive to ammonia concentrations, would mean another 500,000 more chickens reared there every year. Artist Kate Milsom was twice forced to move homes where she lived in the Wye Valley on the England-Wales border because the ammonia from nearby chicken farms was devastating.
Michele Franks lives near two chicken farms in Lincolnshire. Specific health impacts documented in scientific studies linking ammonia to conditions like heart disease and dementia remain unclear, as do the number of large-scale intensive farms in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Herefordshire, details of the proposed planning rule changes, the locations and approval status of the 12 more poultry sheds, and any mitigation measures for existing farms in hot spots.