Everyday Hazards: Bacteria and Diseases

Workers also risk being infected with dangerous animalborne diseases and bacteria, including E. coli, listeria, and campylobacter. Animals raised for food are intensively confined on disease-ridden factory farms, and by the time they reach the slaughterhouse many are suffering from pneumonia and other chronic illness, and some have cancerous lesions or pus-filled wounds all over their bodies. At slaughter, animals often vomit and defecate on the workers.

Workers on the killing floor are in constant contact with feces, vomit, and diseased animals, so it’s not surprising that they often fall ill themselves. One study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that in a sample of slaughterhouse workers, half tested positive for campylobacter bacteria, which can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, and fever.²⁵ A worker at a Smithfield slaughterhouse told Human Rights Watch, “I am sick at work with a cold and breathing problems … I have red rashes on my arms and hands, and the skin between my fingers is dry and cracked. I think I have an allergic reaction to hogs. But I’m afraid to say anything about this because I’m afraid they will fire me.”²⁶ The overuse of antibiotics on factory farms has also led to strains of bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant, and when workers are infected with these supergerms, they cannot be treated with conventional medicines. People who eat the carcasses of these animals are also at risk for serious illness. Exposure to the chemicals used to process and store animal flesh is also a major hazard for workers. In July 2006, for example, 22 workers at a chicken slaughterhouse in Oklahoma were taken to the hospital after an ammonia tank leaked.²⁷

Repetitive Stress Injuries

Workers in slaughterhouses and processing plants are also prone to repetitive stress injuries from cutting carcasses and lifting piles of dead animals all day long. In fact, the rate of repetitive stress injury for slaughterhouse employees is 35 times higher than in other manufacturing jobs.²⁸ Making the same cutting or lifting motion every few seconds, employees on the processing line often perform the same repetitive gesture 10,000 times in a single eight-hour shift.²⁹ A former worker at a chicken slaughterhouse whose hands are swollen like claws says, “I hung the live birds on the line. Grab, reach, jerk, lift. Without stopping for hours every day … after a time, you see what happens. Your arms stick out and your hands are frozen. Look at me now. I’m twenty-two years old, and I feel like an old man.”³⁰ According to a report in Fortune magazine, “Poultry workers are also 14 times more likely [than other factory workers] to suffer debilitating injuries stemming from repetitive trauma—like ‘claw hand’ (in which the injured fingers lock in a curled position) and ganglionic cysts (fluid deposits under the skin).”³¹ No matter what type of animal they’re killing, workers often suffer debilitating cumulative stress injuries because of the constant toll that cutting and lifting take on their muscles and joints.

Under the leadership of the Bush administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) decided to stop requiring slaughterhouses to keep track of cumulative stress injuries, despite the fact that these injuries are a serious problem for meatpacking employees. Instead of setting a tougher ergonomic standard to combat repetitive stress injuries in slaughterhouses, OSHA made the problem go away by refusing to keep track of these injuries at all.³²

Slips and Falls

Because the floors of slaughterhouses are always soaked with blood, urine, and other bodily fluids, workers are prone to injuries from slips and falls. Many employees who fall on the concrete floors in slaughterhouses suffer permanent injuries, and many lose their jobs because their injuries affect their work. One slaughterhouse worker says, “I slipped on remnants on the floor. I hurt my back, my hips and my leg. … I could hardly walk. The company doctor told me I was OK and to go back to work. But I couldn’t stand the pain. I went out on sick leave. The company fired me for missing time.”³³

Read more about how the farmed-animal industry hurts workers.