WSB (Atlanta): Chicken Plant Workers Say Chemicals Sprayed on Carcasses Making them Sick
This investigative news report interviews multiple USDA inspectors who were sickened from the chemical spraying of poultry carcasses inside processing plants. The reliance on excessive chemical spray will likely increase under the USDA’s plan to deregulate poultry inspection – changes that GAP’s Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) strongly opposes. Featured in the piece is FIC Director Amanda Hitt, who also provided an in-depth interview.
Key Quote: “It is the industry’s little secret,” said Amanda Hitt, with the Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign.
She said the industry is under pressure to keep the levels of deadly bacteria down, and do it in the most cost-effective way, “they just blast them with these chemicals and send them on their way to your store shelves.”
Hitt said she isn’t satisfied with the level of testing done on these chemical compounds prior to their implementation, especially when it comes to worker safety.
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“The average consumer isn’t interested in a side of bleach with their chicken, I think they’d prefer barbeque sauce,” said Hitt. “The industry isn’t really quick to let the [public] know what it takes to get a carcass ready for consumption.”
Washington Post: Probe – DHS Watchdog Cozy with Officials, Altered Reports as He Sought Top Job
A Senate oversight panel has found that the former acting Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security “altered and delayed investigations at the request of senior administration officials, compromising his independent role.” Charles K. Edwards resigned last December, days before he was slated to appear before the Senate. This latest development serves as a vindication for whistleblowers who reported Edwards’ wrongful actions.
A judge has ruled that a whistleblower from the Maine Center for Disease Control – who alleges that her superiors retaliated against her after she refused to shred public documents – must turn over her “diaries, medical records and mental health records, as well as the names of any doctor or mental health professional she’s seen since 2011.” The attorney for whistleblower Sharon Leahy-Lind labeled the request for these records as irrelevant.
Key Quote: “From my perspective, it’s a fishing expedition to look for ways to undermine either my client’s credibility or somehow suggest that she came to the job suffering from some condition that, perhaps, made her more sensitive to a work environment that an otherwise hardy individual could endure,” she said. “The facts are that Sharon had never seen a psychiatrist or psychologist and so that theory is not going anywhere.”
KPHO (Phoenix): Whistleblower Meets with Fed Officials on VA Allegations
A whistleblowing Veterans Affairs doctor from Arizona met with federal investigators yesterday about his allegations that his former office delayed “patient care result[ing] in the deaths of veterans,” and that “top VA administrators [were] orchestrating a plan to deliberately hide the fact that patients were waiting months, some up to 21 months, to see a doctor. ”
Key Quote: “They’ve been cooking the books. And they have been deliberately supplying Washington and Division with false numbers,” said Foote.
Related Article: KSAZ
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.