Arnold Brothers & others place pork truckers at risk of disease

OK, Disorder, could you pass this on to any of your other contacts that are still with the container pork hauling end. Cousin says he usually just sees the guys as he passes them on the highway.This also applies, from what we can find out, for the other companies that are hauling pork products away from the processors to bring to the West coast for shipment overseas. The owner operators and company drivers hauling pork need to be aware of this. Company drivers should perhaps contact their provincial "Work Safe" government department by letter, keeping a copy for themselves and express their concern over this, so that there is a record of this issue, should any of them become sick. FIRST OFF-THE HAULING COMPANIES ARE NOT TELLING THE OWNER OPERATORS OR DRIVERS THAT THE PIG MANURE IS A TOXIC SOUP OF DISEASE PATHOGENS THAT CAN BE PASSED TO HUMANS. You guys are expected, when you pick up a trailer at the pork processing facility to do your walk around and get under the trailers to check brakes. Cousin says the ground you are lying on usually smells rank because of the seepage of manure from the pig trailers. Cousin developed a cough and went to his family doctor. The doctor flipped out when told he lies on his back on contaminated ground under a trailer checking the brakes at the pork places. Cousin is now on antibiotics and being sent to a respiratory specialist. The companies should have alerted the truckers to wear respiratory protection masks over nose and mouth when under there. Companies should also have provided some sort of mechanic's type creeper for you guys to use and lie on when under there. The nasty diseases that you guys can easily pick up from lying in the manure are: Yersinia, Enterocolitica, Ascaris Suum, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and a type of E. Coli. There is one other that cousin's doctor did not write down but told him about that can cause a really bad respirator infection. The doctor also mentioned that with antibiotics being used in the pig raising process, that antibiotic resistant forms of some pig manure pathogens could be developing. You guys need to contact your provincial work place health authorities and get them started on a protocol that there are separate parking lots for where the pig trailers come in and wait, and where the loaded trailers heading out are stored. Cousin says it looks like his lungs will be making the decision for him to leave Arnold Brothers. It is doubly important for you guys to be aware that when it is dry in the summer heat, the contaminated manure dust you guys are breathing in while under the trailers checking brakes is doubly dangerous. Cousin's doctor is contacting WorkSafe BC about his concerns about companies not alerting workers so that they can take some precautions, but most pork producers are in Alberta, Sask. and Manitoba. Anyhow, please ask guys to pass this along.

 

Thanks for clarifying that Bobby T. Do all the trucks use the same secured entrance and do the pig trucks drive through where the loaded trailers are parked to get to where they off load the pigs? Have been at my cousin's house when his wife has taken the "brake check" clothes out of a bag to put in the wash.-and no doubt about it-they stink of manure. Their doctor has told her to wear disposable latex gloves to handle them and wear a disposable respiratory mask while handling them He has recommended that she use Lysol first to wash them and then wash them again in detergent. He wants her to get her lungs looked at too. Given what you say is the layout of the lots being separate Bobby T, how would you suspect the cross contamination is occurring?

 

Thanks for that, Transam Pete. Now we know why you are still single and likely to remain that way.

 

Just curious, Bobby T. -is the same "yard goat" used to service both the pig delivery side and the loaded trailer side at most of the plants. Heard that Olymel/Red Deer, Maple Leaf Foods (Loblaws) at Brandon and Hylife at Neepawa all use the same "yard goat" for both sides, so you are going to get cross contamination in that situation. While taking the load off-site to do the pre-trip so one does not have to lie in the crap doing the brake check, you would still have contagious air borne particles possible from the tires. Risk might be low for someone in really good health but if you have a cold or anything where your immune system is not 100%, you could be at risk of getting something. Still think drivers should know about the health risk that might be possible, even if risk is small.