Preliminary research conducted by the Saskatoon based Prairie Swine Centre suggests commercial gas monitoring devices used in swine barns tend to indicate the presence of higher levels of ammonia than would the standard methods for measuring ammonia.
The Prairie Swine Centre is in the midst of evaluating methods for controlling and monitoring occupational exposure of workers in swine facilities.
Researchers are assessing the effectiveness of canola oil sprinkling, low protein diet, high level cleaning and manure pH manipulation, in reducing ammonia and respirable dust concentrations in swine production rooms and assessing the performance of commercial gas monitoring devices using the standard gas measurement method as a reference.
Dr. Bernardo Predacala, a research scientist in engineering, notes workers should not be exposed to ammonia levels exceeding 25 parts per million and, over the two trials completed so far, those limits have not been exceeded.
We found that there’s significant disparity in the levels that these two methods are showing us in terms of the levels of ammonia.
The levels shown by the commercial gas monitors are significantly higher than the levels you obtain using the standard method.
Because these commercial gas devices are widely used in the industry, as long as workers are able to monitor their level of actual exposure in their barns, then they’ll probably be safe because what they’re seeing is actually sometimes higher than what the standard method usually yields.
If a regulator for example comes into their barn and does the measurement using the standard method then the regulator would see values that were typically lower than what the barn operator would be seeing using their own commercial gas devices.
Additional information on the study can be obtained by visiting the Prairie Swine Centre web site prairieswine.com or by calling 306 373-9922.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
