Workers on evisceration lines at poultry and swine plants are at increased risk for musculoskeletal disorders, studies released by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service conclude.
Both studies released Friday recommend companies implement ergonomic improvements and take other measures to reduce risks to their employees.
Significantly, neither report said that increasing the speed of evisceration lines resulted in higher risk to workers. Instead, it was the “piece rate,” defined as “a job-level measure of work pace” – that was correlated with greater risk.
The National Chicken Council quickly highlighted the lack of a connection between line speeds and occupational risk to call for an increase in line speeds.
“As a result of this study, we strongly urge the agency to initiate rulemaking to increase evisceration line speeds to a minimum of 175 birds per minute (bpm) for all broiler establishments instead of the current waiver approach,” said Ashley Peterson, NCC’s senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.
“The current approach has created significant uncertainty for companies with waivers and a competitive disadvantage for those without them,” Peterson said. “The agency should move to a level playing field and help increase the global competitiveness of the U.S. broiler industry.”
"While the industry has been safely increasing line speeds over the past 30 years, the poultry industry’s injury and illness rate has fallen 89 percent, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, demonstrating the tremendous advancements the industry has made in improving safety for its workforce," NCC said.
Speeds in the establishments examined in the poultry study ranged from 140 to 175 birds per minute.
National Pork Producers Council President and Minnesota pork producer Lori Stevermer said, “As expected, after more than three years of operating at increased line speeds, FSIS has confirmed that increased line speeds are not a leading factor in worker safety.” NPPC said it would "continue to engage with FSIS to find ways to continue expanding and making permanent these increased line speeds to help alleviate supply issues."
The poultry study looked at 11 establishments, the swine study at six.
At the poultry facilities, “81% of workers were at increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) across all establishments,” the study found. “Models indicate that reducing piece rate, by increasing job-specific staffing or decreasing job-specific line speed, may reduce [MSD] risk for workers.”
In addition, four of 10 workers at the poultry plants “reported experiencing moderate to severe work-related pain during the past 12 months. Such pain was not reported more frequently at establishments with higher evisceration line speeds.”
The results were somewhat similar for the swine plants.
Forty-six percent of workers evaluated in the six establishments were at high risk for MSDs.
“Piece rate, a measure of work pace that accounts for job-specific line speed and staffing levels, was associated with a statistically significant increase in risk of injury across all establishments and was a better indicator of MSD risk than evisceration line speed,” the study said.
“For one establishment, evisceration line speed was associated with a statistically significant increase in MSD risk, and for another establishment evisceration line speed was associated with a statistically significant decrease in MSD risk,” the swine study said. “The remaining four establishments had null associations.”
More than 42% of workers across all establishments “reported moderate to severe upper extremity pain during the 12 months prior to the site visit.”
Both studies found that workers did not report pain to their bosses. For swine facility employees, 33% kept their pain to themselves, for poultry workers, “over 40% of all respondents did not report their pain to the supervisor or nurse.”
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents over 15,000 poultry workers at facilities across the southern U.S., as well as meatpacking and processing workers in other parts of the country, said the studies show how “America’s meat processing workers feed American families, but at a staggering cost to themselves.”
“Hundreds of thousands of poultry workers are among the American meat processing workers at increased risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome and other crippling upper extremity disorders.” Appelbaum said.
“We call upon OSHA and the USDA in the incoming administration to make worker safety a priority, and mitigate risk at poultry plants to address the dangerous conditions outlined in the reports,” he said. “We need to mandate job modifications that reduce ergonomic stressors and additional staffing to decrease repetitive motion and work speed; increase workers’ access to early and adequate medical treatment; and create better tool-sharpening programs to reduce the impact of cutting jobs.”
Both studies were done by teams of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, under contract with FSIS.
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