The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health approximately $400,000 to evaluate the extent to which exposure to ammonia and endotoxins on dust particles may influence health among neighbors of poultry operations.

Air monitoring will determine levels of atmospheric contaminants in homes within 3,000 feet of a farm and nasal samples will be obtained from cooperating residents.  This study will extend over a year and the results should indicate whether mitigation is required or whether air emissions from poultry farms are innocuous.