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【社会人文】神秘的屠宰场：工人全都疲乏不适
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eleven workers who removed brains from slaughtered pigs at a plant in Minnesota have come down with a mysterious neurological condition, company and U.S. health officials said on Friday.
State and federal officials were working to find out if other workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. in the city of Austin may be in danger.
"As far as we know, it is a rare condition," said Dr. Daniel Lachance, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which tried to diagnose and treat the employees.
"To date, it has been seemingly restricted to this one workplace and not others of a similar nature, at least as much as I know right now from colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Health," Lachance said in a telephone interview.
"The reason for all this is not at all clear."
Kelly Wadding, president of Quality Pork, said he shut down the part of the plant where the employees worked.
"There is one area where we were harvesting tissue with compressed air blowing brains out of the cavity. It was a nasty looking place," he said in a telephone interview.
"I just said we would stop it for the time being until we could get further information."
Wadding said the Occupational Safety & Health Administration had sent officials to inspect the plant.
"They are looking at it. What they seem to want to do is basically work in concert with the health department," he said. "We've got the best people in the world working on this."
Hormel Foods Corp. is Quality Pork's sole customer. The factory processes 17,000 hogs per day and employs more than 1,200 people.
Julie Craven, a spokeswoman for Hormel, said she did not believe the company's products were affected.
"What we can tell from the food experts is, it is not a food safety issue. What we are trying to determine is what exactly is it," Craven said. "It has got nothing to do with food safety."
Lachance said any number of things could cause neurological damage to the workers, including chemicals used to process the pork products or even a virus.
"There is a fair amount going into figuring this out (including) where the workers are located," he said.
The symptoms are vague.
"Patients feel a generalized illness and tiredness. They have a sense of fatigue or weakness in their legs," Lachance said. "It hasn't really progressed to a severe form of weakness. Most of it is relatively mild to moderate severity."
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0734568420071208 本人认领该文的翻译及编译工作,如因非主观因素24小时内未能及时完成,请其他站友自由认领.谢谢! Doctors study nerve symptoms of U.S. pork workers
医生们关于美国猪肉厂工人神经症状的研究.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eleven workers who removed brains from slaughtered pigs at a plant in Minnesota have come down with a mysterious neurological condition, company and U.S. health officials said on Friday.
路透社芝加哥消息:周五,公司及美国卫生系统的官员们称,明尼苏达州猪肉屠宰厂的工人们因从死猪身上取走脑子而罹患一种令人费解的神经学(异常)状态.
State and federal officials were working to find out if other workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. in the city of Austin may be in danger.
该州及其同盟州的官员们正致力于确认奥斯汀城的其他猪肉屠宰加工执业者是否也有患病危险.
"As far as we know, it is a rare condition," said Dr. Daniel Lachance, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which tried to diagnose and treat the employees.
来自明尼苏达州,罗切斯特玛亚诊所的神经科医师Dr.D.L,正试图诊疗这些患病工人.他说,"就目前所知,这是种少见情况."
"To date, it has been seemingly restricted to this one workplace and not others of a similar nature, at least as much as I know right now from colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Health," Lachance said in a telephone interview.
电话采访中,他说道,"迄今为止,就我依照来自该州其他卫生部门的同事的消息看来,这种异常状况仅局限于那一家操作间,而其他有着相似情况的工厂并没有发生该情况."
"The reason for all this is not at all clear."
"其确切的原因尚未完全明了."
Kelly Wadding, president of Quality Pork, said he shut down the part of the plant where the employees worked.
猪肉屠宰加工行业的老总K.W说,他已经关闭了患者所在的相关工厂部门.
"There is one area where we were harvesting tissue with compressed air blowing brains out of the cavity. It was a nasty looking place," he said in a telephone interview.
电话采访中,他说道,"有个地方,我们通过压缩空气将脑子从猪的颅腔内吹出来收集,那里看起来比较污秽."
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-03-24 21:19
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