Estudo de riscos ambientais na indústria frigorífica: processos abate frango

Abstract

The poultry industry in recent years has presented its best economic performance. The country is ranked third in the world when it comes to broiler meat production. However, employee’s excessive physical efforts, repetitive activities, improper posture when performing some of the activities, monotony, fatigue due to stress and exposure time, and especially to the extreme temperature changes places the cold storage industry as a potential environment for a great number of illnesses. Thus, the thriving production scenario for the poultry meat should not omit the Brazilian social liabilities generated by the workers’ illness. Taking it into consideration, this work is concerned to assess the risks to workers' health generated in the process of poultry slaughter at a poultry plant. Therefore, we conducted a case study through a questionnaire applied to employees. In addition, an interview was conducted with the Safety Engineer. Every study is supported by the bibliographic research, which describes the main concepts of risks, the applicable Regulatory Standards, as in the case of NR-4, NR-7, NR-9, NR-15 and NR-17, as well as the study of the poultry industry in Brazil and its industrial chicken slaughter process. With the results, it was possible to characterize the biological risks, physical risks, chemical risks and ergonomic risks of accidents at each process assessed. Finally, it was concluded that the proposed objectives were achieved and the study serves as the basis to review the current practice and policy regarding to worker’s health in the poultry plants and this may encourage further debate and studies.