Health hazard for workers in slaughterhouses

Workers in stables and slaughterhouses endanger their health

02/15/2014

According to a new study, people working in pig or poultry houses or an attached slaughterhouse endanger their health. The work there contributes to a significantly increased risk of respiratory disease. Experts recommend improvements in occupational safety.

Increased risk of respiratory disease
People working in pig or poultry houses or an attached slaughterhouse are at risk of harm to their health, according to a new study. Working in such companies contributes to a significantly increased risk of respiratory disease. As Gunter Linsel of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health opposite the „New Osnabrück newspaper“ said, individual jobs in the production chain would go from stall to slaughterhouse one „extremely high load with dusts and germs.“ Therefore, improvements in occupational safety, such as respiratory masks or ventilated work helmets, are required.

Ingredients in the stall air
The German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's long-term study, in which scientists spent 12 years studying employees in the livestock sector of a company, was asked to find out which diseased components are present in the stable air and how workers could be effectively protected from them. According to project manager Linsel, they came to the following conclusion: „The closer and longer the contact with the animal, the more dangerous it becomes for the employee.“

Working with different risks
Employees in the live animal acceptance in the poultry slaughterhouse or also coworkers of the hatchery are exposed to a special danger. Rather low risk would be activities such as collecting eggs. As the newspaper said, the long-term study has not yet been completed, but blood samples from individual employees over the past twelve years are currently being evaluated. This should be checked to see if it could come by working with animals to signs of allergies or infections. (Ad)

Image: Udo Böhlefeld