USDA, critics spar over NIOSH poultry inspection study as commission plans human rights hearing on issue
March 24, 2014 | 07:11 PM
Officials from the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Inspection Service are pointing to a study released last week by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as proof that the changes in poultry inspection can proceed without endangering workers, while critics say the study proves their point that the working conditions for inspectors in meat plants are dangerous.
NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program issued the report after being asked to identify the potential for more musculoskeletal and upper extremity trauma due to a planned increase in the speed of the evisceration line.
“It is critical that the country’s 60-year-old poultry inspection system be modernized to reduce pathogens and save lives,” FSIS said in an email.
“Because that should be done with the safety of poultry plant workers in mind, FSIS requested a study to assess the impact safety modernization would have on workers. The study shows that overall injury rates and working conditions remained the same following poultry plant line speed increases like those allowed in the safety modernization proposal.”
“Today’s report provides more evidence that musculoskeletal problems are a real concern for poultry workers and makes a number of recommendations for improving worker safety, but does not show evidence that increased line speeds were a significant safety factor,” the statement continued.
“Today administrator Al Almanza called on industry leaders to encourage them to take steps to improve worker safety in poultry while the Department continues to examine proposals to make Americans’ food safer.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hold a hearing Tuesday on charges that the U.S. government has failed to protect meat and poultry workers by allowing dangerously fast work speeds that cause crippling injuries.
A coalition of civil rights groups and meat and poultry workers oppose FSIS’s proposal to make changes.
“The group will testify that the industry is allowed to violate workers’ human rights with impunity and will call on the U.S. government to enact work speed protections and oppose the dangerous rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would increase poultry line speeds,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a news release.
“This report confirms what poultry workers have been saying for years: ‘The line speed kills you,’ the coalition said in a news release.
“The hard-working people who produce our food should be protected from dangerous conditions,” the group said. “The safety of our food supply is also compromised when the safety of the workers in the food industry is compromised. The U.S. government should stop putting industry profits ahead of worker and consumer safety.”
The hearing will be held at the Organization of American States, 1889 F St. N.W. in the Padilha Vidal Room. at 10:15 a.m.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak has been invited to attend, but the hearing occurs the same morning that the statue of Norman Borlaug is to be unveiled at the U.S. Capitol.
The witnesses scheduled to appear include:
▪ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Traumatic Injuries Among Employees at a Poultry Processing Plant ▪ OAS Inter-American Commission Human Rights
NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program issued the report after being asked to identify the potential for more musculoskeletal and upper extremity trauma due to a planned increase in the speed of the evisceration line.
“It is critical that the country’s 60-year-old poultry inspection system be modernized to reduce pathogens and save lives,” FSIS said in an email.
“Because that should be done with the safety of poultry plant workers in mind, FSIS requested a study to assess the impact safety modernization would have on workers. The study shows that overall injury rates and working conditions remained the same following poultry plant line speed increases like those allowed in the safety modernization proposal.”
“Today’s report provides more evidence that musculoskeletal problems are a real concern for poultry workers and makes a number of recommendations for improving worker safety, but does not show evidence that increased line speeds were a significant safety factor,” the statement continued.
“Today administrator Al Almanza called on industry leaders to encourage them to take steps to improve worker safety in poultry while the Department continues to examine proposals to make Americans’ food safer.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hold a hearing Tuesday on charges that the U.S. government has failed to protect meat and poultry workers by allowing dangerously fast work speeds that cause crippling injuries.
A coalition of civil rights groups and meat and poultry workers oppose FSIS’s proposal to make changes.
“The group will testify that the industry is allowed to violate workers’ human rights with impunity and will call on the U.S. government to enact work speed protections and oppose the dangerous rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would increase poultry line speeds,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a news release.
“This report confirms what poultry workers have been saying for years: ‘The line speed kills you,’ the coalition said in a news release.
“The hard-working people who produce our food should be protected from dangerous conditions,” the group said. “The safety of our food supply is also compromised when the safety of the workers in the food industry is compromised. The U.S. government should stop putting industry profits ahead of worker and consumer safety.”
The hearing will be held at the Organization of American States, 1889 F St. N.W. in the Padilha Vidal Room. at 10:15 a.m.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak has been invited to attend, but the hearing occurs the same morning that the statue of Norman Borlaug is to be unveiled at the U.S. Capitol.
The witnesses scheduled to appear include:
- Tom Fritzsche, staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center
- Omaid Zabih, staff attorney for Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest
- Liz Borkowski, MPH, researcher, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University
- Teresa, former meatpacking plant worker from Nebraska
- Gwen, former poultry plant worker from Kentucky
- Juan, former meatpacking plant worker from Nebraska
- Lee Pearl Duff, mother of slain poultry plant worker from Mississippi
▪ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Traumatic Injuries Among Employees at a Poultry Processing Plant ▪ OAS Inter-American Commission Human Rights
