Community Impacts

Ammonia Pollution

Human health impacts of factory farm air pollution

89%

of UK ammonia emissions come from farming

47%

of UK agriculture’s ammonia emissions come from beef and dairy cows

15%

of of UK agriculture’s ammonia emissions are from poultry production1

What It Is

The hundred of millions of animals trapped inside the UK’s factory farms produce an eye-watering amount of waste, which in turn produces a very literal eye-watering amount of air pollution. And stinging eyes is by no means the worst that workers and local residents must contend with.

Once in the air, ammonia reacts with other pollutants and forms fine particulate matter. This is one of the most harmful air pollutants to human health because it can cause cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer, stroke2, and premature death. One woman unlucky enough to live close to a chicken farm described living with a tightness in the chest, eye irritation, and breathing difficulties.3

Ammonia pollution also damages sensitive habitats such as woodlands and heaths, while driving the eutrophication of waterways, which kills aquatic life. And spare a thought for the poor animals who are stuck inside those polluted sheds all their lives. Chickens, who are forced to grow so fast they are often unable to stand up, may endure painful burns to their skin from having no choice but to sit in the ammonia-filled waste.

Workers. Communities. Animals. Rivers. Habitats. Wildlife. Everyone suffers so Big Ag bosses can bank their millions.

What They Do

Sensitive Content

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Impact

Human deaths

Living near a factory farm has been shown to raise the risk of death.4

Wildlife deaths

Ammonia pollution drives eutrophication and loss of aquatic wildlife.

Habitat deaths

Ammonia has a “direct toxic effect on vegetation”.5

Hall of Shame

Anglo Beef Processors (ABP) Arla Avara Foods 2 Sisters Banham Poultry Bernard Matthews Cranswick Dunbia Foyle Food Group Glenrath Farms Gressingham Karro Moy Park Noble Foods Pilgrim’s Europe St Helen’s Farm Stonegate Eggs

Investigation and Reports

Report

The ammonia pollution problem

A 2026 report by Compassion in World Farming
Research

Ammonia map

Industrial farming’s ammonia pollution mapped by Sustain and Compassion in World Farming
Research

Ammonia emissions from agriculture and their contribution to fine particulate matter: A review of implications for human health

A 2022 study examining the impact on human health of ammonia from farms

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