Ammonia Risk Assessment Laura Boles ENV385: Chemistry and Toxicology Instructor Muthu Kuchanur 02/04/2019
Ammonia Risk Assessment Laura Boles ENV385: Chemistry and Toxicology Instructor Muthu Kuchanur 02/04/2019
Ammonia Risk Assessment Laura Boles ENV385: Chemistry and Toxicology Instructor Muthu Kuchanur 02/04/2019
Laura Boles
02/04/2019
Ammonia Risk Assessment
Abstract
Ammonia is a toxicant which is both produced by humans and found naturally across the
earth. This research paper analyzes the effects of ammonia in the environment and on human
health. Then, after thorough analysis, risk estimation is presented. It was found that the main
people who suffer from deleterious health effects due to ammonia exposure are those who work
directly with ammonia. However, the severe effect on the environment, coupled with ammonia’s
readiness to travel through various mediums, shows a need to suppress use and manufacture of
ammonia.
Introduction
Ammonia is a toxicant that, in large quantities, degrades the environment, rather than
assists it. Ammonia is the most released chemical in the state of Oklahoma (U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 2018, Toxic Release Inventory). First, discussed here are the health effects of
ammonia on humans and other wildlife along with where it can be commonly found in the
Finally, potential solutions for the mitigation of ammonia mitigations are proposed.
Hazard Identification
Ammonia is found as a gas or liquid without color, but with a very strong odor (U.S.
National Library of Medicine, 2018). Ammonia is corrosive and lighter than air but will become
a liquid under pressure (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018). Ammonia can be found
unionized as NH3, ionized as NH4+, or can oxidize to become nitrite (NO2-) or nitrate (NO3-)
alcohol, methanol, chloroform, and ether (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018). This
indicates that there are many forms that ammonia can take and pathways in which it can travel,
since there are so many common compounds to which it will readily attach. Ammonia is also
known to be corrosive to galvanized surfaces and copper (U.S. National Library of Medicine,
2018).
Figure 1. Chemical structure for ammonia. (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018).
Ammonia is more toxic to people with respiratory and cardiovascular problems, children,
seniors, and fetuses (Peel, et al., 2013, Pg. 124). Since ammonias generally found as a gas, it is
usually known to have a severe effect on the respiratory systems of those affected. This clearly
indicates that inhalation is the most common route of exposure. Although children and those
with respiratory illnesses are the most likely to be harmed by ammonia exposure, people who
work with ammonia directly tend to be most frequently exposed to toxic levels (United States
making it difficult to measure concentrations (Chowdhury, et al., 2018, Pg. 2). When ammonia is
exposed to the air it reacts with other molecules in the atmosphere to create volatile nitrogen
compounds and particulate matter as it persistently travels through the nitrogen cycle (Hickman,
et at., 2018, Pg. 16714). When these nitrogen compounds fall to the earth in the form of
precipitation, acidification and eutrophication will often occur as a result (Schiferl, et al., Pg.
12306). Eutrophication caused by ammonia levels can cause fish kills due to the fact that
nitrogen fertilizes the algae and fungi in the water, creating large blooms which deplete the
ecosystem of oxygen (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2018). Higher pH
levels increase the toxicity of ammonia for fish decreasing their buffering ability for ammonia
(Yuen & Shit, 2010, Pg. 8). Ammonia has been found to easily permeate mitochondrial
membranes and make it past the blood brain barrier, and high levels of pH can cause fish death
Ammonia accumulates in the tissues of fish and for the most part fish excrete that
ammonia into their environment, however when too much ammonia accumulates in the fish is
body it can disrupt their nervous system (Yuen & Shit, 2010, Pgs. 8-9). Ammonia also has a
ammonia as their body mass and habitat temperature increased (Ikeda, 2014, Pg. 2756). This
indicates the potential for ammonia to have an effect on metabolic rates in zooplankton or
metazooplankton as well as in larger fish species. Ammonia is known to be toxic to aquatic biota
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018, Ammonia). Even though it can be toxic to aquatic
biota, ammonia usually causes fish kills through eutrophication and hypoxia from over fertilizing
algae.
Exposure Assessment
Well over half of ammonia emissions in the United States come from the animal industry
(Lin, et al., 2014, Pg. 439). One study found that homes near higher levels of ammonia tend to
have a poorer quality of life, even when ammonia concentrations are not high enough to be
considered a health risk (Williams, et al., 2011, Pg. 7). Although this was not the goal of this
particular study, these findings are not insignificant. This indicates that there is no escape from
the noxious gases. OSHA has set the maximum permissible exposure limits at 35 ppm for short
term amount of human exposure (United States Department of Labor, 2002). Ammonia has been
found to be very toxic to the skin and respiratory system and workers exposed to high levels of
ammonia have shown hemorrhaging, severe internal and external irritation and even blindness or
death, however, people who work with ammonia or ammonia-based products are the primary
humans effected (United States Department of Labor, 2002). It only takes a 2% ammonia
solution 15 minutes of exposure to severely burn the skin, while it only takes 70 ppm to
The estimation of risk for ammonia is medium. Since ammonia travels easily through air,
water, and soil, the secondary effects of this chemical are likely to be felt by everyone. The
effects in this category are water contamination and fish kills. Direct exposure to harmful levels
of ammonia seem to be restricted to those who work with the chemical, so the general population
will not be likely to suffer from health effects from this toxicant. Ammonia is also not deemed to
be carcinogenic, lowering the risk of health effects (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry, 2018).
One method used to lower ammonia concentrations inside buildings is to use a wet
scrubber treatment, which has been found to significantly decrease ammonia levels (Lin, et al.,
2014, Pg. 446). Another method of reducing ammonia levels expelled into the atmosphere is by
grazing. It is been found that grazing can reduce emissions of ammonia but up to 8 times as
compared to housing livestock inside (Voglmeier, et al., 2018, Pg. 4593). This promotes not only
mitigation of emissions but also promotes the health and wellbeing of livestock and, by
lowering ammonia emissions. The EPA should propose this idea and make note of the fact that it
will increase human health as well as improve the quality of the food available in the country.
This will help get this idea backed by voters and citizens, since personal health risk is important
to most people. Realistically all livestock will not be able to be free range. To address this
problem, installations of wet scrubber treatment systems would be the best second option.
Livestock requires fresh clean water to survive just as any other mammal. At the same time
livestock remains the number one contributor of ammonia emissions, from the ammonia excreted
directly out of their bodies, to the fertilizer applied to the earth to ensure their food supply.
Farmers may have the most difficulty adapting to these new rules. Many may not feel like they
need to change the way they do things because they have been doing it that way for many years
without problems. Education would be the first necessary step towards getting the public to
change their ways. Next regulation will help to align people with exactly what needs to be done.
Finally grants and loans could be issued for the equipment necessary to clean ammonia from
livestock buildings.
The potential for exposure, health risks, and environmental fate of ammonia have been
discussed. Although ammonia is not directly harmful to humans unless they are working with the
chemical directly, the secondary effects are far-reaching. Multiple solutions to lower ammonia in
the environment have been presented in the hopes that this problem can be addressed before it
References
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). (2018). Ammonia. Retrieved from
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/substances/toxsubstance.asp?toxid=2.
Bicer, Y., Dincer, I., Vezina, G., & Raso, F. (2017). Impact Assessment and Environmental
Chowdhury, A., Feilberg, A., Kamp, J. N., & Adamsen, A. P. S. (2018). Negligible influence of
livestock contaminants and sampling system on ammonia measurements with cavity ring-
https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.5194/amt-2018-377.
library.ashford.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0147135.
Hickman, J. E., Dammers, E., Galy-Lacaux, C., & van der Werf, G. R. (2018). Satellite evidence
library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=133289511&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
Ikeda, T. (2014). Respiration and ammonia excretion by marine metazooplankton taxa: synthesis
org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1007/s00227-014-2540-5.
Lin, H., Wu, X., Miller, C., Zhu, J., Hadlocon, L. jane, Manuzon, R., & Zhao, L. (2014). Pilot‐
scale field study for ammonia removal from lagoon biogas using an acid wet scrubber.
Journal of Environmental Science & Health, Part B -- Pesticides, Food Contaminants, &
library.ashford.edu/10.1080/03601234.2014.894781.
Peel, J., Haeuber, R., Garcia, V., Russell, A., & Neas, L. (2013). Impact of nitrogen and climate
change interactions on ambient air pollution and human health. Biogeochemistry, 114(1–
Schiferl, L. D., Heald, C. L., Van Damme, M., Clarisse, L., Clerbaux, C., Coheur, P.-F., …
States: sources and implications. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, 16(18), 12305.
library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=118645369&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
Rough Draft – Ammonia Risk Assessment 11
United States Department of Labor. (2002). Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
https://www.osha.gov/dts/sltc/methods/inorganic/id188/id188.html.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2018). Ammonia. CADDIS Volume 2. Retrieved from
https://www.epa.gov/caddis-vol2/ammonia.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2018). Toxic release inventory. Retrieved from
https://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/tri_release.chemical.
U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2018). Hazardous substances data bank. Retrieved from
https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/newtoxnet/hsdb.htm.
Voglmeier, K., Jocher, M., Häni, C., & Ammann, C. (2018). Ammonia emission measurements
http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-
library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=131044688&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
Williams, D. L., Breysse, P. N., McCormack, M. C., Diette, G. B., McKenzie, S., & Geyh, A. S.
(2011). Airborne cow allergen, ammonia and particulate matter at homes vary with
library.ashford.edu/10.1186/1476-069X-10-72.
Yuen, I. & Shit, C. (2010). Ammonia Production, Excretion, Toxicity, And Defense In Fish: A
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3059970/pdf/fphys-01-00134.pdf.