Speed- at all costs

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We’ve heard about this before- for years.  Folks working in animal processing facilities are more prone to injury and poor working conditions than in other industries.

Chicken Plant

Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center has just published a new study, Unsafe At These Speeds.   It details conditions at a variety of chicken processing facilities in the South.  Where the plant temperatures are kept very low (to keep infections of the meat to a minimum), but, more importantly, where workers are 2.5 times more likely to develop severe carpal tunnel syndrome than those working in other facilities.  Where lung disease is common.  (Histoplasmosis, present in dead birds, often causes respiratory diseases.)   Where many of the plant workers are illegal aliens and are threatened with exposure, if they complain about conditions at the facilities.

As if that were not a problem, the USDA is now considering a plan to allow processors to speed up the chicken processing plants.   Why?  So that they can use fewer inspectors (saving some $ 90 million over the next three years) and more easily comply with the sequester (although this was being considered before it came into effect) and let the chicken processors accrue an additional  $ 200 million in annual profits.

How will this happen?  By speeding up the chicken lines from 140 birds a minute to 175 (turkeys from 45 to 55).  Oh, and flooding the chickens and the lines with chemicals to insure that meat infections can be kept to a minimum.  But, if carpal tunnel is a routine problem at the lower speeds, what do you think will result when the bird speed approaches 3 a second down the line?  And, how well will one be able to discern infected meat?

The chemicals of choice are chlorine and peracetic acid. The problem is that both of these chemicals are toxic to humans, too.  (More than the histoplasmosis would be.)  So much so, that employee deaths are being observed at a variety of plants beginning to use these techniques- as well as heightened incidence of respiratory problems.   Why?  Because, now, all carcasses will be treated with the chemicals, whether or not one observes and contamination.  (Prior practice was to remove contaminated poultry- either for off-line cleaning or rejection.  That prudent practice is to be eliminated.)

And, the problem is exacerbated that there are multiple agencies with multiple agenda.  We have the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), which is supposed to protect our supply of meat from contamination.  [USDA has been accused of being too cozy with the firms they regulate.]   But, they have no purview for worker safety or conditions.

That is the purview of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) – which has found facilities with problems using these chemicals (improperly labeled chemicals, no training for employees, no monitoring equipment, etc).  But, OSHA often defers to state inspectors- and we already know how often and extensive state inspections occur (recall the West [Texas] fertilizer facility fiasco).

And, everyone defers to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for the health risks.  But, the FDA does not really regulate the chemicals’ safety (they are the purview of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]; instead relying on the safety claims of the chemical manufacturers.

So, that leaves us- you and me- as well as the workers at risk.  And, these new high speed lines are not going to make things safer for any one of us.  But, it will use fewer inspectors (another “benefit” of the sequester) and make more money for the processors (not including the increased profits from selling potentially substandard chickens and turkeys that would have been discarded before, under the guidelines that obtained pre-sequester).

 

 

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12 thoughts on “Speed- at all costs”

  1. Reading this, you just can’t know how much I’m glad I’m a vegetarian. Well, except for all the GMO stuff going on…

    This brings a whole new level of ICK to the food industry. It’s felt like a crap shoot for a while now going to the grocery. Buy local. Buy Kosher. Grow your own when you can…*shudder* I think I’ll skip breakfast now…

    1. I didn’t know you were a vegetarian… but, Lisa, it’s not GMO that’s the big issue. What about polluted water irrigation? Failure to wait sufficient time AFTER the last irrigation with reused water before harvesting? Sick employees picking vegetables, leaving their detritus which survive in low humidity (35% or more) environments?

      Now, you can skip breakfast…

    1. It’s not the higher speeds, per se, Alessa. But, because they are letting the high speeds pertain, the chickens will now be flooded with chlorine and peracetic acid- that disinfection theoretically means there will be fewer infected chickens. (It also assumes that they arrive in perfect condition and are stored properly.)

  2. i work at tysons food and have histoplasmosis im only 27 and they ran test there is nothing else wrong with me they say that there chicken farms are in houses and i didnt get it there my doctor said whatever!

    1. I am so sorry that you have had the “opportunity” to develop histoplasmosis. And, it’s highly unlikely you developed that disease except from where you work. Is this YOUR doctor- or the doctor provided by the employer?

      1. well i guess u could say mine i was having shortness of breath and i went to our plants nurse she thought i was trying to get out of work… she said it was in my head but i knew something was wrong… i left work and went to the er room… i had a ct scan and a chest x- ray… they found a mass the size of a soft ball, they thought it was cancer and sent me to a cancer center… i got a biopsy(on my birthday which really stressed me more),and got the path report the next day…not knowing where i worked he told me this is not cancer this is and infection caused by birds and im thinking whaaaaaat! and he says how did you get this because most be who get exsposed my age dont know they have it the may think its the flu and thats it i told him tysons he said okay that explains alot… but my body reacted different with the mass… well i think i kind of know…. the job i have… i work sanitation..well i deal with some pretty knock you down chemicals, and you dont wear a mask so you breath it in…(there not chemicals you can just go get at wal-mart ya know) i dont know why but im pretty sure that has had a hand in this and i clean where the bad birds are…. but they say there chicken houses upgraded and i couldnt have possibly pick it up there yea… i doubt it… my doctor doubts it…now they want me to sign papers sayin it not work related cause no one had it in the ten years this nurse work there i didnt sign a thing but i had such and uneasy feeling i went and talked to a lawyer those tysons people are something else……

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