The U.S. Department of Agriculture still hasn't dropped its plan to speed up chicken processing lines from 140 chickens per minute to 175 and allow "visibly contaminated" chicken carcasses to stay on regular processing lines rather than being taken away for cleaning. That would mean
all the chickens would be
sprayed with extra antimicrobial chemicals—and that means added problems for workers who already face a 42 percent rate of carpal tunnel syndrome from the repetitive, fast-moving work they do (with knives, by the way):
On the chemical-spray front ... Atlanta's WSB-TV News, shows that some USDA inspectors in the southeast are complaining publicly that the antimicrobial sprays are causing them, as well as line workers, serious respiratory troubles. The Atlanta report builds on an excellent 2013 story by the Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy, who conducted interviews with more than two dozen USDA inspectors and poultry industry employees, and found 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."
Does the USDA really want the answer to "what's for dinner?" to be "visibly contaminated chicken sprayed with lots of chemicals and processed by a worker with carpal tunnel, a rash, and sinus ulcers"? If not, it's time to pull this proposed speed-up, for food safety and worker safety alike.