Hooray, we’ve got a new reason to hate feedlots. Until now, nearly all the research done on hormone implant risks at cattle feedlots has focused on these hormones finding their way into streams and rivers. But now, a group of researchers is looking into how these hormones are being dispersed into the environment through blown feedlot dust:
In the arid and oft-windy West, his team finds, dust can ferry substantial quantities of livestock hormones through the air — probably together with traces of the wastes that had carried these veterinary pharmaceuticals out of the cow…
The obvious question is: What do these concentrations mean? Are they unhealthy — that is, unhealthier than breathing in dust generally? “We have no idea,” [one researcher] says, “but we will be trying to understand if this is something we should be worried about. Like is it bioavailable? How quickly do these [pollutants] degrade? And how far do they travel?”
Feedlots. Screwing up the world for omnivores and vegans alike. (Thanks, Matt.) Link.
