Abstract
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.
Highlights
Food production and waste management is increasing to meet the demands of an expanding population (estimated to rise by 4.5% in the UK, from mid-2018 to mid-2028 (ONS, 2020a))
In England, the extent of the population living in proximity to anthropogenic bioaerosol sources is, unknown, it is widely thought that intensive farming and composting facilities are mostly located in rural areas away from residential homes and schools
Intensive farming facilities mostly clustered in rural areas, with a large proportion located in the East and the West
Summary
Food production and waste management is increasing to meet the demands of an expanding population (estimated to rise by 4.5% in the UK, from mid-2018 to mid-2028 (ONS, 2020a)). The number of composting facilities in England has increased by 134% from 140 in 2010 to 327 in 2017 (Environment Agency, 2018b; Robertson et al, 2019) (Fig. 1). Bioaerosols are ubiquitous in the natural environment but are emitted in elevated quantities from intensive farming and composting facilities. Due to their small size (typically < 3 μm in diameter), bioaerosols have the potential to travel over large geographic distances (Tamer Vestlund et al, 2014; Fröhlich-Nowoisky et al, 2016; Feeney et al, 2018). At present, there are no quantitative dose-response estimates to derive health-related exposure limits for bioaerosol emissions from intensive farming or composting facilities (Pearson et al, 2015; Walser et al, 2015). Use reports of air pollution-related incidents attributed to intensive farming and composting facilities collected by the Environment Agency (EA) in England between 2011 and 2017 to calculate the average number of air pollution related incidents per year per facility, and describe the Philippa Douglas et al Characteristics of populations around intensive farms and composting facilities socio-demographic characteristics around facilities with reported incidents
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