Carpal tunnel common among Latino poultry-processing workers: study

Winston-Salem, NC – Latino poultry-processing workers are twice as likely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome as their peers in other industries, according to research from Wake Forest University.

Researchers compared symptoms and nerve tests for 287 Latino poultry-processing workers to 226 Latino workers in other manual-labor occupations, according to the study abstract. The prevalence of CTS was 8.7 percent among poultry workers, compared with 4.0 percent in the other group.

Among poultry workers, CTS was more common for workers who performed strenuous and repetitive hand movements than those whose duties included packing, sanitation and chilling.

The study appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Post a comment to this article

Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)