ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study to quantify the contribution that poor air quality is making to human occupational health and safety issues, such as total sick days, staff complaints and staff resignations due to respiratory discomfort within the working environment. Although the study was undertaken in the pig industry, the results provide valuable information that can be used in other intensive animal industries. The study was expanded to include production data to demonstrate the economic benefits of improving air quality on the health and welfare of pigs. The air quality data were analyzed for significant associations with the data collected from the 20 farms surveyed using Pearson's correlation. None of the air quality parameters was significantly associated with the average number of sick days/farm. Air quality and a clean air environment were recognized as important by the majority of managers who placed these issues high up on their hazard and safety list.
