LITTLE ROCK — CDC: Language barrier led to Tyson accident
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a chlorinegas leak at a Springdale poultry plant last year that sickened nearly 200 people occurred because a worker couldn’t read English.
The CDC said in a report released Thursday that a Spanish-speaking worker at the Tyson Foods Inc. plant knew not to mix sodium hypochlorite with an acid but couldn’t read the label on a container of chemicals that had been misplaced.
Tyson Foods disputes the report. Spokesman Gary Mickelson says the worker wasn’t Hispanic and that a language issue wasn’t to blame. He didn’t say why the accident happened.
The CDC recommends that U.S. industries take steps to better train workers and says warning labels should be tailored to workers’ languages and educational levels.
- The Associated PressAlabama dealership
is Car-Mart’s 118th
America’s Car-Mart Inc. of Bentonville said Thursday that it has opened a new dealership in Enterprise, Ala. The new location is the company’s 118th overall and its 11th in Alabama.
“Alabama has been a great state for us and we are excited about continuing to expand our business to more cities like Enterprise as we grow,” William “Hank” Henderson, president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
Jeff Williams, chief financial officer, said the company plans to open six new dealerships before May 31, the end of the company’s fiscal year. He said the company expects to open new dealerships at an approximate 10 percent annual rate beyond the current fiscal year.
America’s Car-Mart has dealerships in nine states, primarily in small cities in the south-central region of the nation.
- Steve PainterState index rises 0.01
to finish at 243.08
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, inched up 0.01 to 243.08 Thursday.
Winners and losers were almost evenly divided.
USA Truck climbed 1.6 percent on about an eighth of its normal volume, while another trucking company, Arkansas Best Corp., gained nearly 1 percent, also on light volume.
Simmons First National gained 1 percent, but another banking corporation, Home BancShares, dropped 1 percent. Both moves came in light trading.
Volume for the index was 25.7 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 29.6 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 12/07/2012