TOWNSEND SKINNER
The UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office is aware of several severe amputations and other injuries caused by a machine commonly found in pork slaughter and processing plants. The Townsend Skinner, Model 7600, is a manually fed skinning machine used primarily in pork plants to de-fat and skin pork butts, hams, and picnics. It is also reportedly used on membrane skinning on the ham lines. Several beef plants use these skinners as well.
On January 22, 2004, a UFCW member working at the Excel plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, suffered the amputation of four of her fingers while operating this machine. Several months later, at a food processing plant in Pennsylvania, another UFCW member suffered an amputation involving several fingers.
The UFCW is currently investigating where these machines are located and how frequently these injuries occur. In both plants where these amputations have happened, the companies replaced the manually operated skinner with an automated or more securely guarded machine to prevent such injuries from recurring.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, has cited several companies for violating the OSHA machine guarding standard, stating the company did not guard the Skinner to prevent injuries. The companies cited by OSHA include Swift, in Greeley, Colorado, and ConAgra in Grayson, Kentucky. OSHA cited Excel, in Ottumwa, Iowa, but the citations were subsequently dropped.
Anyone with information on an injury related to the operation of this skinner should immediately contact their local union, which will forward the information on to: safety@ufcw.org
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