A father and his son who were so close that they were “like glue” were killed Saturday by noxious fumes from a northwest Iowa hog manure pit — the second father and son in the Midwest to die of poisonous manure pit gases this month.
It takes just a few seconds for routine maintenance work in a pig barn to turn deadly, said Daniel Andersen, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at Iowa State University.
It’s hydrogen sulfide that can be the deadliest of the gases created when manure decomposes — along with methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide, Andersen said.
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