030520 North Carolina Hog Farm Fears IntensifyMay 18, 2003As concern grows over the potential for industrial hog farms to make people sick, regulators lack basic information about the chemicals wafting from North Carolina's 2,300 farms. Hog farm odor, a signature of the nation's second-largest hog state, has been linked to ailments ranging from headaches to mood swings. Some of the 25 compounds most widely associated with the farms are toxic. But researchers haven't settled on a uniform method to measure the airborne mix of gases and fine particles from sprawling hog barns, waste lagoons and spray fields. That makes it harder to learn what the farms are doing to the environment and to people.
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