Objections lodged against a controversial 26,000-bird poultry farm in Perthshire have hit triple figures after new research emerged linking the units to pneumonia.
Campaigners against the Aviagen proposal in Murthly say the international company wants to build a unit the size of St Johnstone’s football stadium less than a mile from the local primary school.
Fears for children’s health have been a raised in a number of objections which now total well over 100 on the Perth and Kinross Council planning portal. The application closes to public comments on Friday.
Critics have pointed to a scientific study that has emerged from 2017 linking for the industrial poultry units (IPU) to community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).
The report conducted by Utrecht University in The Netherlands found that living with 1.15km of a poultry farm led to an 11% increase in risk of contracting CAP – although the authors did suggest the finding should be treated with caution due to the sample size.
Similar research carried out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and Wageningen University and Research Centre has led the Dutch government to say it is “concerned” by the results.
John Evans, chairman of Keep Murthly Beautiful and leader of campaign group Druids Park Community Company, said residents of the Perthshrie village were “sick with worry” over the proposal.
He said: “There is clear published medical evidence of increased levels of serious harm to humans of living within 1.15km of an Industrial Poultry unit.
“These risks including pneumonia will impact our whole village and of course be devastating for primary schoolchildren being less than half that distance from the source of pollution.”
He said the scheme would house tens of thousands of birds in an industrial facility the size of McDiarmid Park next to primary school “spewing pathogens and ammonia into the air and releasing toxic heavy metals into the groundwater and run off into the Tay”.
“It is madness. It is environmental vandalism on a grand scale, ” he added.
Aviagen said it had necessary steps to comply with legislation.
A spokesperson for the company said: “As part of the application process we undertook all necessary environmental surveys and site assessments to assess the potential environmental effects from this development.
“We can provide assurances to the local community that the farm will be operated to the highest environmental and health and safety standards.”
