It’s not often a good thing for a company to be the subject of something called a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tyson Foods had that privilege recently as the federal agency offered its review of the June 27, 2011, incident at the company’s Berry Street plant in Springdale.
The incident required medical care for nearly 200 Tyson employees after they were exposed to chlorine gas.
Everyone apparently agrees about what produced the gas: An employee accidentally mixed chemicals that shouldn’t have been mixed. This happened during a shift with 600 workers inside the plant.
It was a very serious exposure to a chemical that can.
Tyson oft cials said the worker who made the mistake was correctly trained but failed to read a label on a barrel that would have warned him to the dangers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a more ominousconclusion: The worker spoke Spanish, could not read English and was not capable of reading warning labels.
Tyson denies the worker responsible was Hispanic and said his primary language is English. The company says it’s put in additional controls to limit access to chemicals and continues to emphasize training for those authorized to handle chemicals.
Whatever version is correct, the employees ended up sickened by the chlorine gas and the plant’s operations were interrupted. The bottom line for Tyson is how to keep something like this from happening again. They owe it to their employees and their families.
Whether the employee could read English labels or simply chose not to undoubtedly needs to reviewed, but that sounds like something more important for the lawyers. It didn’t take long after the incident for attorneys who specialize in “toxic exposure litigation” to start soliciting Tyson employees.
We don’t know who’s right, but in either case, the lasting impact falls on Tyson and its employees. It seems oftcials from both entities could get together, jointly conduct interviews and settle things once and for all. But that may not be the way of big business and bigger government.
The company says it has retrained workers and re-evaluated the plant’s emergency response plan.
It’s crucial that company oft cials and government regulators learn all they can about such incidents so corrections can be made. In this case, because of the discrepancies in stories, it might be harder to play the “who’s to blame” game. That can be left to the lawyers.
Tyson, the Berry Street plant and Springdale got lucky with this chemical incident. Nobody died and few were seriously aff ected.
Hopefully, the next incident will be smaller or avoided all together through the measures Tyson Foods adopted as a result of this crisis.
TYSON KEEPS ON GIVING
Even as it deals with such unpleasant but important matters as outlined above, Tyson Foods continues to give to Northwest Arkansas.
The Springdale-based company gave $75,000 to Fayetteville High School’s agriculture program to help pay for new equipment, such as a “squeeze chute” that will allow the students to more safely work with large animals.
Tyson also invested in a brighter future for young people dealing with mental health and substance abuses challenges. The company gave $150,000 toward Youth Bridge’s campaign for a new residential and clinical complex.
We thank the company for giving back to the communities where its employees live and work.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/18/2012