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in case of a leak. Kelly died of asphyxiation, according to a coroner's report, due to "acute hydrogen sulphide intoxication." Tyson is contesting an OSHA citation and fine in connection with Kelly's death, arguing that the cause of death has not been conclusively determined.
Five weeks after Kelly's death, on the morning of 20 November 2003, twentyfive-year-old Glen Birdsong was working alone cleaning a holding tank near the loading dock at the Smithfield Foods hog processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. The tank held Mucosa mixed with sodium bisulphite intended for use as a clotting medicine ingredient. The hose Birdsong was using got caught in the tank. Birdsong climbed down a ladder to free the hose. Co-workers later found him at the bottom of the ladder unconscious and not
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breathing. Attempts to resuscitate him failed. He died overcome by fumes inside the tank. "They didn't tell him about the dangers, and they didn't give him a safety belt to get pulled out of there in case he fell in," co-workers told Human Rights Watch.
Anecdotal evidence of the dangers in meat and poultry plants is backed up by hard numbers. The industry has the highest rate of injury and illness in the manufacturing sector. As one Nebraska expert explains: "Despite the hardhats, goggles, earplugs, stainless-steel mesh gloves, plastic forearm guards, chain-mail aprons and chaps, leather weightlifting belts, even baseball catcher's shin guards and hockey masks... the reported injury and illness rate for meat packing was a staggering 20 per hundred full-time workers in 2001. This is two-and-ahalf times greater than the average manufacturing rate of 8.1, and almost four times more than the overall rate of 7.4 for private industry.
A special investigative report in 2003 by the Omaha World-Herald documented deaths, lost limbs and other serious injuries in Nebraska meat packing industry plants since 1999. Much of the evidence involved night shift cleaners, most of them undocumented workers.
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recorded what happened:
"Cleaner killed when hog-splitting saw is activated."
"Cleaner dies when he is pulled into a conveyer and crushed."
"Cleaner loses legs when a worker activates the grinder in which he is standing."
"Cleaner loses hand when he reaches under a boning table to hose meat from chain."
"Hand crushed in rollers when worker tries to catch a scrubbing pad that he dropped."
In all, the report concluded, nearly one hundred night shift cleaning workers in the state meat packing industry suffered amputations and crushing of body parts in the period (1999-2003) reviewed by the investigative team. These severe injuries are just the tip of an iceberg of thousands of lacerations, contusions, burns, fractures, punctures and other forms of what the medical profession calls traumatic injuries, distinct from the endemic phenomenon in the industry of repetitive stress or musculoskeletal injury..
To read more about human rights violations in the US meat packaging industry, and the recommendations put forward to end such violence, please visit www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/
Human Rights Watch is an independent, non-governmental organisation, dedicated
to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Founded in 1978; it is the largest US based human rights organisation.
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