Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Poultry industry illness, injury rates remain low

The incidence of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in the poultry industry remains low, decreasing 76% over the last 16 years, according to the 2010 Injury and Illness Report released by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The total recordable poultry processing illness and injury rate for 2010 was 5.9 cases per 100 full-time workers per year, up slightly from 5.5 in 2009 but down from 6.1 in 2008, according to the report. In terms of injuries per 100 full-time workers, the poultry industry’s rate of 5.9 was below the rate of 6.9 for all animal slaughter and processing and statistically the same as the rate of 5.8 for the entire food manufacturing sector. 
Among the industry's efforts to improve its worker safety record are the sharing of non-competitive practices; working with equipment manufacturers and suppliers to improve machine guarding on new equipment and the provision of adequate disconnects to assist and facilitate proper lock out/tag out procedures; and collaborating with personal protective equipment suppliers.

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