April 26, 2013

Washington Post: At chicken plants, chemicals blamed for health ailments are poised to proliferate

By Kimberly Kindy
April 26, 2013

When Jose Navarro landed a job as a federal poultry inspector in 2006, he moved his wife and newborn son to a rural town in Upstate New York near the processing plant, believing it was a steppingstone to a better life.

Five years later, Navarro was dead. The 37-year-old’s lungs had bled out.

His death triggered a federal investigation that raised questions about the health risks associated with a rise in the use of toxic, bacteria-killing chemicals in poultry plants. Agriculture Department health inspectors say processing plants are turning to the chemicals to remove contaminants that escape notice as processing line speeds have accelerated, in part to meet growing consumer demand for chicken and turkey.

The department is now poised to allow a further increase in line speeds, boosting the maximum by about 25 percent. This change is part of new regulations that officials say would make poultry production more efficient and reduce the number of government inspectors while increasing the number of private company inspectors.

Under the proposed rules, which could be finalized as soon as this summer, the number of chemical treatments used on the birds is also likely to increase, according to agency documents and USDA inspectors who have worked in plants where line speeds have already accelerated.

To keep speeds up, the new regulations “would allow visibly contaminated poultry carcasses to remain online for treatment” — rather than being discarded or removed for off-line cleaning, as is now common practice. The proposed rules say “all carcasses” on the line would be treated with antimicrobial chemicals “whether they are contaminated or not.”

The heightened use of chemicals would follow a pattern that has already emerged in poultry plants. In a private report to the House Appropriations Committee, the USDA said that in plants that have already accelerated line speeds, workers have been exposed to larger amounts of cleaning agents. “The use of powerful antimicrobial chemicals has increased in order to decrease microbial loads on carcasses,” according to the 2010 report, recently obtained by The Washington Post.

In interviews, more than two dozen USDA inspectors and poultry industry employees described a range of ailments they attributed to chemical exposure, including asthma and other severe respiratory problems, burns, rashes, irritated eyes, and sinus ulcers and other sinus problems.

Amanda Hitt, director of the Food Integrity Campaign with the Government Accountability Project, said her group has been collecting statements for the past two years from inspectors reporting illnesses and injuries due to chemical exposure in poultry plants where slaughter line speeds have increased.

“They are mixing chemicals together in these plants, and it’s making people sick,” Hitt said. “Does it work better at killing off pathogens? Yes, but it also can send someone into respiratory arrest.”

Although federal officials say the enhanced use of chemicals can promote public health by fighting such contaminants as salmonella, government agencies have not conducted independent research into the possible side effects on consumers of using the chemicals. Instead, they review data provided by chemical manufacturers.

Nor has the USDA studied the effects of the chemicals on its inspectors or private employees. USDA officials said that research into worker safety is a job for other agencies. But no industry-wide study has been done by the government, and it does not keep a comprehensive record of illnesses possibly caused by the use of chemicals in the poultry industry.

Inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration at poultry plants show that at least five facilities had problems with chemicals the past three years, according to agency documents. The most common citations were for failing to properly label hazardous chemicals, failing to train employees on how to handle the chemicals and failing to have monitoring equipment in place that would detect when chemicals, such as ammonia, reach toxic levels in a plant.

At the poultry plant where Navarro worked, company officials rejected the notion that chemicals killed him.

During the investigation at the plant, inspectors and plant workers offered a raft of complaints. They said they suffered from irritation to their respiratory system, two reported “coughing up blood” and still others had “various skin diseases,” an OSHA report said.

The OSHA report cited chemicals as the suspected cause of the workers’ ailments.

Faster pace, fewer inspectors

If the White House signs off on the USDA’s proposed regulations as expected, poultry plants could speed up their slaughter lines later this year. The maximum speed for chickens would increase from 140 birds per minute to 175 per minute, and for turkeys, from 45 birds to 55 per minute. Workers, who already often complain of carpal tunnel and other musculoskeletal disorders, may have to pluck, cut and sort birds even faster.

At the same time, the new regulations would reduce the number of federal health inspectors in the plants by as much as 40 percent.

The proposed rules grew out of a USDA pilot program, which agency officials said was designed to enhance food safety by reducing pathogens. There are financial incentives for both the USDA and the industry: The agency expects to save $90 million during the next three years through staff reductions, and poultry plants could save more than $200 million annually.

The combination of faster processing and fewer government eyeballs means that companies will increasingly rely on chemicals to keep the poultry free of contaminants, according to interviews with six current and former USDA inspectors who have worked in a range of plants across the country where slaughter line speeds have accelerated.

“They don’t talk about it publicly, but the line speeds are so fast, they are not spotting contamination, like fecal matter, as the birds pass by,” said Phyllis McKelvey, who worked as a USDA poultry inspector for 14 years until she retired in 2010. “Their attitude is, let the chemicals do the work.”

In plants where line speeds have increased, more chemical treatments have been added. Plants that used as few as one or two rinses, sprays or soaks now use as many as four or more.

Although procedures vary among plants, in a typical scenario, high-powered nozzles shoot water and chemicals into the interior of a bird and along its surface. Next, the bird moves through one or two spray cabinets, where it is showered with other chemicals. Finally, it is chilled and soaked, usually in chlorine and water.

“They are using the chemicals as a stopgap measure,” said Tony Corbo, a lobbyist for Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group.

Ashley Peterson, the National Chicken Council’s vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs, said the volume of chemicals would increase further under the new rules because a larger volume of birds would be processed.

“If line speeds at a plant are increased and if more birds are produced, obviously the volume of antimicrobials will increase to ensure that each bird is treated with the proper food safety interventions,” Peterson said in a statement.

But she said this would be done safely. Peterson said that processing plants will use only USDA-approved chemicals, that the chemicals are “diluted significantly” and that plants are taking steps to minimize workers’ exposure to them, such as enclosing chemical spray stations and improving ventilation.

The 49-page proposed regulation allows for the use of additional chemical treatments with the new inspection system. For example, plants will be allowed to use chemicals on “air chilled” birds that traditionally relied only on low temperatures to kill pathogens and prevent them from spreading. The proposed rule also encourages plants to use chemicals along the processing line, not just at the end.

The USDA has not conducted research into possible health risks that chemical treatments could pose for consumers of the poultry products. The agency says it relies on the chemical review and approval process of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, for its part, does not conduct its own research but examines data provided by the chemical manufacturers.

Elisabeth Hagen, the USDA’s undersecretary for food safety and inspection service, said in an interview that she could not comment on how the use of chemicals under the new system would affect the presence of pathogens. But she said the program would modernize inspections, for instance by positioning inspectors more strategically, and save the lives of as many as 5,000 consumers.

“Food safety has to be front and center of any policy we set forward. No one is making a choice between food safety and worker safety,” Hagen said. “Bottom line, plain and simple: We would never put forward a rule that we thought would increase risk for anybody.”

After the interview, the USDA provided a statement saying, “We have no reason to believe chemical usage would increase under this proposed new inspection system, if implemented.”

Asked about the apparent contradiction between this statement and information contained in agency documents and provided by agency inspectors, the USDA released a comparison of plants operating under the pilot program, which allows them to increase line speeds to 175 birds per minute, with some plants that are not in the program. The comparison looked at how many places along the processing line chemicals were used to treat birds, and agency officials said the statistics showed there was essentially no difference between the two sets of plants.

But the comparison did not address the amount of chemicals used in the plants or their concentration. Moreover, the number of plants included in the comparison was too small to yield a statistically meaningful conclusion about any differences in chemical use.

Officials said that any increase in chemical use in recent years is the result of plants trying to comply with stricter USDA requirements for reducing pathogens, including salmonella.

Coughing up blood

At the end of each workday at Murray’s Chicken, Jose Navarro would climb into his Ford station wagon, drive by the Holy Ghost and Fire Church, and pass a single stoplight to reach his rented home in South Fallsburg, N.Y.

His wife, Nicole Byrne Navarro, said he would give “lengthy, detailed reports” each evening about his concerns about the plant, which often focused on the chemicals used to disinfect both equipment and birds.

“Some themes that were constant were poor ventilation and overuse and mishandling of chemicals which constantly irritated his lungs,” Byrne Navarro said. “Sometimes he would hold his hand over his chest and talk about the chlorine reaching intolerable levels that day.”

Several months before he died, he coughed up blood, but it “self-resolved,” according to the autopsy report. Then on Nov. 19, 2011, he began coughing up blood and went to the hospital, where his lungs continued to hemorrhage. He died a week later after his lungs and kidneys failed, the autopsy report said.

At the time of Navarro’s death, Murray’s Chicken was using chlorine and peracetic acid to treat the birds, according to federal records and interviews with company officials.

Chlorine and peracetic acid are two of the most commonly used chemicals in plants, according to OSHA inspection documents and interviews with USDA inspectors and poultry plant workers.

At plants where line speeds have been increased, inspectors and plant workers say chemical use is on the rise and that the exposure time to the chemicals has been extended. Sometimes a third chemical is added, but that practice varies from plant to plant.

Both chlorine and peracetic acid are toxic, according to the Material Safety Data Sheets that chemical manufacturers give to the plants, which in turn are required to post them.

For chlorine, the data sheets say exposure can cause lung damage, emotional disturbances and even death. Peracetic acid can damage most internal organs, including the heart, lungs and liver, the data sheets show. If inhaled, the chemical can cause “severe respiratory and mucous membrane irritation and possible chemical burns.” It can also cause “acute lung damage.” USDA officials said the chemicals are used at such low concentrations that they are not dangerous.

During the investigation that followed Navarro’s death, an OSHA inspector raised concerns about the “increase in use of disinfectants” at the plant and said “the combination of disinfectants and other chemicals” in addition to pathogens like salmonella “could be causing significant health problems for processing plant occupants,” OSHA documents show.

OSHA issued four citations. Two were for “serious” violations, which included failing to provide inspectors with training about hazardous chemicals and failing to record inspector injuries in a federally mandated log.

OSHA records show that one USDA inspector was exposed to “chlorine odors” that forced a temporary evacuation of the plant. The inspector experienced an “aggravated bronchial condition” and was prescribed antibiotics. Another involved an inspector exposed to “microbial agents” and disinfectants that resulted in a “rash on arms and legs.” The inspector was given a topical steroid, records show.

Dean Koplik, the chief executive of Murray’s Chicken, said in an interview that the company is contesting the citations and that OSHA found no problems with chemical levels and exposure at the time of the agency’s visit.

Koplik dismissed OSHA’s findings that other workers suffered from respiratory problems, saying the agency “made some vague allegation about respiratory issues, but it never provided details. It’s Upstate New York, and it was in the winter. People get respiratory issues.”

Navarro’s widow and inspectors at the plant said they believed chemicals contributed to Navarro’s death.

In a written statement, Koplik said “OSHA found no connection or causation whatsoever between the unfortunate passing of the USDA inspector and the plant environment.”

There is no conclusive evidence as to whether the chemicals killed Navarro.

OSHA officials said the agency did not render a judgment about whether the plant was responsible for Navarro’s death. Instead, OSHA officials issued a hazard-alert letter, showing they had concerns about the use of chemicals and made a series of recommendations to improve conditions at the plant.

‘Like I was choking to death’

At other poultry plants, federal inspectors have also reported starting to experience respiratory problems when additional chemicals were added to the mix where they work. They said their biggest problems seemed to come with the introduction of peracetic acid.

USDA inspector Sherry Medina recounted that she developed a severe respiratory infection one month after the Tyson Foods plant in Alabama where she worked began using peracetic acid in June 2011. The infection wouldn’t go away.

“I would walk into the plant, and I’d start wheezing. It was like I was choking to death. I coughed so hard, I broke two ribs,” said Medina, who is now on disability.

She said that the peracetic acid seeped out from the spray cabinet and that chemicals used in processing and for cleaning combined in the drains at the inspectors’ feet, causing respiratory and sinus problems.

Federal inspectors at another Tyson plant in Texas — where chlorine and peracetic acid are used — recently complained about similar problems, prompting an inspection in February by the USDA’s Safety and Health Management Division.

“When maintenance staff opened a cabinet for inspection, a significant plume of mist could be seen moving into the airstream of overhead fans, which were pointed toward the inspection stations,” a Feb. 6 USDA report said.

The report recommended that the spray heads operate at a lower velocity, that maintenance staff avoid opening cabinets during production and that exhaust ventilation be installed by the cabinets. The health investigator also recommended covering the floor drains, especially those where the inspectors work. “This will minimize the opportunity for chlorine by-products or waste PAA (peracetic acid) to enter the air” near federal inspectors.

Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman said that drains have been covered and ventilation improved at the Texas plant. At the Alabama plant, new ventilation has been installed and managers were given training on how to monitor and react to chemical concerns, he said.

“Tyson is dedicated to the safety and well-being of each and every team member,” Sparkman said in a statement. “We take their claims very seriously and encourage them to take any concerns about safety to plant management.”

David Hosmer, president of the Southwest Council of Food Inspection Locals, said he is encouraging his members to raise concerns with the USDA about the potential long-term health effects of heightened chemical treatments.

“We are dealing with respiratory issues. We are dealing with burning eyes and sinus issues,” said Hosmer, whose council is part of the American Federation of Government Employees. “The last thing I want is for people to end up with emphysema or someone losing their eyesight. Or even death.”

April 25, 2013

Progress Missouri Exposes Ties Between Missouri Legislators and Corporate Front Group

Progress Missouri today released a detailed research report exposing the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Missouri Capitol.

ALEC is a lobbying group on steroids. They host fancy retreats that bring together corporations and state legislators with the expressed purpose of creating “model” legislation together. The appeal of ALEC rests largely on the fact that legislators receive trips, food, and lodging that amount to a free family vacation. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported after the 2011 ALEC conference in New Orleans, “Corporate benefactors made sure Missouri lawmakers attending the conference were well fed and hydrated.”

In this year’s legislative session more than 40 proposed bills have directly echoed ALEC models. They include classic attacks on working families such as the so-called right to work bill, a “castle doctrine” law that undermines social security, and a bill that created voter registration hurdles for minority, elderly, and disabled voters. This week, the Missouri House is set to consider paycheck deception legislation that seeks to shut workers out of the political process.

Rather than worrying about what’s best for everyday working families, ALEC members are ceding their elected role in drafting legislation to corporate special interests that worry about stock prices and profits.

ALEC’s interference with the state legislative process has been viewed so negatively that more than 40 major corporations, including Walmart, Coca-Cola, General Motors, McDonald’s, and Amazon.com have cut ties with them.

Unfortunately, many notable Missouri politicians remain connected.

More than 60 legislators in Missouri have been identified as having ties to ALEC, including Speaker Tim Jones, Majority Leader John Diehl, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, and State Senator John Lamping.

This level of outside influence in the Missouri Capitol is alarming. Missouri’s working families would be better off if its elected leaders stopped carrying the water of corporations and started caring about the concerns of the people who elected them.

April 16, 2013

UFCW Local 1776 President: For Corbett, privatizing liquor stores is about saving his own job

By Wendell W. Young IV

It only took two years, but it appears that Gov. Tom Corbett has finally ‘fessed up about why he persists in trying to dismantle Pennsylvania’s wine and spirits shops: he really likes his job.

According to recent reports, the governor is leaning on fellow Republicans to support dismantling the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board so he can bolster his reelection chances.

It would be more ironic than tragic if not for the stakes. Gov. Corbett wants to put as many as 5,000 PLCB employees and roughly 12,000 beer distributor workers out of a job so he can save just one: his own.

At least our governor has come clean and told voters the truth, a rarity in his first three years in Harrisburg. Time and time again, our governor has proven that he just cannot be trusted.

He promised to balance our state budget by spreading the pain across the board – on businesses and the middle class alike. Not true: He has given his business friends $800 million in tax cuts, made up by middle class taxpayers who have yet to see a single break.

He promised that by cutting corporate taxes, he would create jobs and the middle class would benefit. Not true. Our state unemployment is higher than the national rate and is headed in the wrong direction.

He promised to reform Harrisburg and change the way that ‘politicians’ in Harrisburg work. Not true. Our governor has taken yacht trips, helicopter rides, tickets to black tie galas and other goodies from corporate and lobbyist friends. It’s now been revealed that one of his corporate patrons, who paid for the governor’s private flights and a yacht vacation, is accompanying Gov. Corbett on a state-sponsored trade mission to South America, and previously joined him on a similar junket to France and Germany.

When pressed, his defense was that he didn’t break the law.

At least our governor has come clean and told voters the truth.

He promised to conduct a transparent government accountable to the voters. Not even close to the truth. Gov. Corbett continues to try and cut a backroom deal with a foreign company to outsource our state lottery. He signed the first deal – later ruled illegal by our Attorney General Kathleen Kane – without benefit of one single public meeting.

On the LCB issue, the governor continues to mislead. He strong armed the state House to rush a bill through without a single hearing (sound familiar?) because he simply cannot stick to the facts and make a compelling case.

Corbett claims the state stores make no money. Not true: They’re  currently running at 14.8 percent profit.

Corbett first claimed that an auction of liquor licenses would generate $2 billion; then it was $1 billion and, then $800 million. On this point, nobody knows how much the auction might generate because the bill was rushed through the process. But the record suggests that Gov. Corbett’s projections remain a pipe dream.

Corbett and his allies say that displaced workers will find new jobs. Not true. The governor’s own experts at Public Financial Management concede that 2,300 full-time equivalent employees will go on unemployment compensation and virtually no new jobs will be created. None. And that estimate did not include the impact on the 12,000 employees of our state’s beer distributors who could lose their jobs under Corbett’s current plan.

Finally, Gov. Corbett said that not one person has told him that privatization is a mistake. Not true. There are too many groups opposed to privatization to list here but a very quick sampling includes: Mothers Against Drunk Driving, PA Fraternal Order of Police, PA Chiefs of Police, Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania, The Commonwealth Prevention Alliance.

In addition, a taskforce of The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued a recommendation against wine and spirit privatization because of increased public health risks, while not addressing Pennsylvania specifically.

The truth of the matter is that privatization is bad public policy: it will cost jobs, hike prices and increase underage drinking, drunk driving and other public health risks. Gov. Corbett cannot convince his fellow party members on the merits, so he needs to make it about keeping his job.

But UFCW is encouraged that public hearings when this complex and important issue are to be convened in the Senate. Our members are confident that issues are aired, the governor’s political wishes will lose to good old fashioned facts.

Wendell W. Young IV is president of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents state liquor store employees.

Click here to read the original op-ed.

April 12, 2013

UFCW President Hansen Statement on Latest Attack on NLRB

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement after the House passed H.R. 1120 which would effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“Today House Republicans stooped to a new low by passing legislation to shut down the NLRB. This is part of a calculated and ongoing effort by big corporations and their allies in government to weaken the right to organize. Simply put, they want to make it harder for workers to join a union by taking the referee off the field and letting chaos ensue. If House Republicans are so interested in the NLRB having a working quorum, they should call their colleagues in the Senate and urge them to allow an up or down vote on President Obama’s nominees.”

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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.

April 11, 2013

Missouri Workers Speak Out Against Attacks

We Are Missouri, a diverse coalition of workers, students, seniors and their families, today launched a new online story collection project at WorkingVoices.Tumblr.com to showcase personal messages of Missouri workers speaking directly to their elected representatives about anti-worker attacks moving in Jefferson City.

The Tumblr site features workers from across the state, including teachers, electricians, municipal workers, grocery store employees, faith leaders and community leaders standing together against so-called ‘right to work’ bills, paycheck deception legislation, and efforts to undermine prevailing wage standards.

Paycheck deception, attacks on prevailing wage standards, and so-called “right to work” proposals are part of an organized national plan to eliminate the voice of middle class workers. But all over Missouri, working people are coming together to voice their frustration with politicians who do nothing to create jobs, strengthen our economy or improve our schools.

Tumblr: Missouri’s Working Voices

Video: UFCW Members Speak Out Part 1

Video: UFCW Members Speak Out Part 2

Video: UFCW Members Speak Out Part 3

 

 

April 10, 2013

UFCW Women’s Network Members Hold Lobby Day at U.S. Capitol

About a dozen members of UFCW Women’s Network traveled to Washington, D.C. today to lobby their Members of Congress on issues important to working families.

Members lobbied in support of comprehensive immigration reform, the Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights, and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They asked their elected officials to support the UFCW’s principles for immigration reform which include a path to citizenship for those already here. In addition, they asked Members of Congress to support the Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights which would end the incentive for employers to drop workers from their health coverage and the Paycheck Fairness Act which would help guarantee equal pay for equal work.

Members were also briefed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on the political landscape for 2014 and attended a reception with Emerge, an organization dedicated to electing more women to office. After their lobby visits, they joined tens of thousands of supporters on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol at a rally for comprehensive immigration reform.

“All in all, it was a great day,” said UFCW Women’s Network International Chair Rhonda Nelson. “Both economic and social issues are important to women and this last election showed just how big our impact can be.”

Nelson said the group plans on continuing to lobby in the future, adding: “When they don’t hear from us, that’s when bills pass that don’t reflect our needs and concerns.”