Rates of maternal malaise appear to be higher than in any other labour sector, with thousands of women suffering as meat exports reach record levels
At five months pregnant, Ivone* was cutting birds on a treadmill when she began to feel unwell.
“I went to the locker room and took painkillers. That’s when I started losing fluid,” he says. She was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an infection and she had to be discharged.
Ivone, who works for the world’s largest meat company, JBS, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, is in her third pregnancy and says she’s losing weight because she couldn’t eat well while at work. For hygiene reasons, he was not allowed to eat on the premises of the meatpacking plant, not even in the conversion rooms. You must bring and faint to eat, then return. It’s impossible,” she says.
Between 2016 and 2019, more than 2600 pregnant women working in meat factories suffered maternal disorders, in addition to infections, hemorrhages and vomiting, according to Brazil’s National Institute of Social Security (INSS). maternal diseases for pigs and poultry, where most women work, at least twice as many as all other labor sectors in Brazil between 2000 and 2016, according to data compiled by hard-working prosecutors, who now advocate for safer operating conditions.
About 220,000 paintings in the meat sector of the country.
Potential hazards for pregnant women can come from small leaks of ammonia (a fuel used in the cooling system), in addition to postures at workstations, exposure to low temperatures, and viruses or bacteria found in the animals’ meat, says Dr. Roberto Ruiz, a fitness representative. in Contac, a federation of food workers’ unions. Karina Caliph, a professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Santa Casa de São Paulo, says: “Pregnant women are more susceptible to almost anything. In addition to the discomfort caused by very low temperatures, constant noise can make nausea and dizziness worse, she says. Spending a lot of time in physical condition can also lead to thrombosis and embolism.
Another challenge is the threat of urinary tract infections, Caliph says. Pregnant women feel like urinating more often, as the expanding uterus puts pressure on the bladder. it can deter women from them.
“Urinary tract infections are one of the main reasons for preterm births and neonatal intensive care,” she adds.
Until a few weeks before their “fear”, Ivone and other pregnant women had been off their boards on the production lines of two JBS factories.
A court had in late March granted a court order to her union, ordering that pregnant workers without full Covid-19 vaccination, or who were engaged in trades subject to destructive agents, be placed on leave.
JBS appealed the ruling and, due to a reinstatement at the fitness protocols ministry, the women returned to painting in April. “But the component that says that pregnant women paint in position with harmful, harmful and painful agents has been maintained,” said Samuel. Remor, union lawyer.
Remor says pregnant women avoid activities that require extensive repetitive movements, such as cutting bird thigh belts. That’s where Ivone was when she felt sick. ” It’s a place without blood, with noise above the [recommended] limit,” he says. Califa agrees: “Ideally, these women should spend their pregnancy in administrative settings. “
Historically, meat corporations have argued that their operations should not be classified as “unhealthy. “”They need to avoid additional pricing [like payment for danger],” says attorney Lincoln Cordeiro.
Cordeiro, who heads an organization of prosecutors specializing in meatpacking plants, is relieving the workweek — lately 44 hours — to curb what he describes as “alarming rates of illness from repetitive motions. “
This applies especially to pregnant workers. ” Shorter working days would increase exposure to any inherent threats at work, offering more protection to workers and unborn children, but also to employers,” he says.
JBS says it does not comment on the ongoing lawsuits, “but notes that all pregnant female painters who returned to paint on the sets of Forquilhinha and Nova Veneza and who in the past painted in environments with temperature variations, for example, have been reassigned to other activities. “
The company also claims to have invested more than £50 million “in suitability and protection measures, systems and processes across its facilities”.
The Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA), which represents the poultry and pig sectors, questions the imaginable correlation between maternal disorders and the slaughterhouse environment.
Abiec, the Brazilian beef exporter, declined to comment on the companies’ “internal procedures. “
Brazil is generating ever-increasing amounts of meat: exports were worth a record $17 billion (£14 billion) in 2020, with poultry exports worth $900 million in May, but deforestation and operating conditions are cause for concern.
* Names have been replaced by identities
Carlos Juliano Barros is an investigative journalist for Repórter Brasil