Meat Processing Named Most Dangerous Job in US

A new report compiled by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) ranked the country’s most dangerous jobs. NELP relied on data provided by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that accounted for severe job-related injuries reported by employees across 29 states from January 2016 to September 2016. The NELP report pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics which revealed that workers in meatpacking plants were twice as likely to be injured, and those working within the poultry processing industry stood a 1.6 higher risk of injury—rates were much higher than other industries, including construction. After considering the 17,533 injuries reported from 14,000 companies, NELP discovered that smaller poultry and meat processing plants ranked fourth and sixth as the most dangerous places to work. “OSHA’s severe injury data shines a light on the severe toll of preventable workplace injuries, especially in the U.S. poultry industry,” lead author of the report Debbie Berkowitz said. Last year, a separate study conducted by Oxfam America found that poultry workers were routinely denied bathroom breaks which often forced them to wear adult diapers on the job.