By Philip Bethge
If there is a paradise for SARS-CoV-2, it would probably be a slaughterhouse. Work units in meat plants are cooled to under 12 degrees Celsius. Workers stand near one another and sweat as they labor under pressure – an ideal situation for viruses transmitted by droplets, aerosols or contact.
Canadian and British researchers working under Quentin Durand-Moreau of the University of Alberta have studied the working conditions in meat plants. The “metallic surfaces” and the “low temperatures,” they report, enhance the longevity of viruses like SARS-CoV-2. They also explain that the plants are often very loud: “The need for raised voices to overcome noise may increase transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote. Workers, they argue, also feel pressured by their precarious work situation to “keep working despite having symptoms of COVID-19.”
“The working conditions in the slaughterhouses cannot be reconciled with the hygiene measures that are currently necessary,” warns Isabella Eckerle, the head of Geneva Center for Emerging Viral Diseases. ……
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