FACTS

Health hazards in poultry working environments are categorised as accidental, physical, chemical, and biological.

1. Accidental

• Sprains and strains due to slip and fall while carrying heavy loads.
• Eye and skin irritation resulting from contact with disinfectants, vaccines, and medicines.
• Burns from exposure to hot surfaces (e.g. beak-trimmers).

2. Physical

• Exposure to high levels of noise.
• Musculo-skeletal problems resulting from lifting and moving of animals, feed bins (bags), egg collection.

3. Chemical

• Respiratory problems resulting from exposure to dust, which is composed of feathers, dander, micro-organisms, etc.
• Exposure to disinfectants, detergents, formaldehyde, and pesticides.

4. Biological

• Zoonotic infections. These diseases are transmitted between birds and humans.

STATS

• NIOSH Finds Alarming 42 % Rate of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) at South Carolina Poultry Processing Plant
  • Musculoskeletal disorders among employees at a poultry processing plant. At the time of evaluation, 81% of the jobs we evaluated were above the limits of hand activity and force where controls are recommended and 34% of participants met case definition for carpal tunnel syndrome.
  • Eighty-one % of the jobs evaluated had average levels of hand activity and force above the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists’ action limit.
  • Fifty-nine % of the jobs evaluated had average levels of hand activity and force above the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists’ threshold limit value.
• According to the B.L.S. of the total 3,620 occupational injury and illness cases requiring days away from work that were reported among workers in the poultry processing industry, 33% (1,190 cases) were MSDs.
• There were nearly 230,000 workers employed in poultry processing. Workers in this industry incurred a rate of 4.2 cases of nonfatal workplace injuries and illness per 100 full-time equivalent workers in 2018. That was higher than the rate of 2.9 cases for all private industry workers.
• The higher rate for poultry processing workers mainly resulted from their higher rate of cases with days of job transfer or restriction. That rate was 2.1 per 100 full-time workers, compared with a rate of 0.7 for all private industry workers.