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The world's two largest meat-packers said on Friday (July 17, 2020) that they have installed ultraviolet air purification equipment at some U.S. meat-packer plants as food companies are under increasing pressure to protect workers amid growing concerns about airborne infections by the coronavirus.
Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N), which produces beef, pork and chicken, said it is doing extensive research on air flow and testing ultraviolet air treatment systems across several plants. It is not known whether such technologies kill the new coronavirus.
The moves underscore the mounting pressure to protect workers in the U.S. meat industry, which has seen more than 16,000 plant employees in 23 states infected with COVID-19 and 86 worker deaths related to the respiratory disease.
Plant employees and their families have said processors like JBS and Tyson Foods told sick workers to show up at plants, and moved too slowly to protect them with social distancing and equipment like masks.
As worker infections grew, so have meat-packers’ legal problems. In one case, the family of a Pennsylvania man who died from COVID-19 sued JBS USA parent company JBS SA for failing to protect him at the meat plant where he worked.
Low temperatures, which generally allow viruses to survive in the air longer, and crowded working conditions have made meatpacking plants global coronavirus hot-spots. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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