Two Tyson Foods Inc. employees have been hospitalized with burns after an accident at Tyson’s water treatment plant in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
Emergency teams and a hazmat team were called to the scene April 3.
"We're investigating an accident at our wastewater treatment facility in New Holland, Pennsylvania,” said a Tyson statement. “Two of our team members were treated for minor injuries and are doing well. We're grateful for the swift response and assistance from local first responders."
According to Lancaster Online, the local news for Lancaster County, the employees were splashed with sulfuric acid. One suffered a burn to the arm and the other to the face.
It is not yet known how the employees were injured. Sulfuric acid could be used in more than one section of the plant which is used for both poultry processing and wastewater treatment. The plant won the 2020 U.S. Poultry & Egg Association’s Clean Water Award in the full treatment category.
While not as popular as peracetic acid, sulfuric acid with sodium sulfate can be used in poultry processing as an antimicrobial aid to reduce harmful bacteria like salmonella. Sulfuric acid is also commonly used in wastewater treatment to reduce the water’s Ph level.
Sulfuric acid is a corrosive chemical that can cause skin injuries ranging from irritation to tissue damage.
The New Holland plant processes 620,000 birds and 2.5 million pounds of cooked product per week and handles an average daily flow of 698,000 gallons of wastewater.
This is not the first incident at a Tyson wastewater plant this year. In January, a plant in Storm Lake, Iowa accidentally dumped 16,500 gallons of wastewater into a lake, most likely due to pump failure.
