Mimi Perkins’ job on the graveyard shift at a Tyson Foods poultry plant started like any other night: hosing down the blood, guts, and stray feathers left behind by hundreds of thousands of dead chickens. Then, she heard a single loud pop. A pipe weld in the plant had ruptured, filling the room with a white cloud of ammonia gas – a chemical used to refrigerate meat that can be deadly in high doses.
, Tyson had years earlier conducted a safety review that led to recommendations that the company install ammonia detectors and upgrade piping in the Hope plant – but hadn’t followed through on those suggestions. “Ammonia piping with deteriorated coatings and extensive corrosion damage was allowed to remain in service,” one of the citations stated. The agency cited Tyson for 15 violations and fined the company $140,000.
severe injury report. But Tyson did not report that incident to the EPA – even though it did report other accidents there in the following years. According to the EPA, facilities are required to report any accidental releases that result in injuries, regardless of how large the leak is. Burleson said that “our records and other