031148 State Investigating Death at Smithfield Plant

Fayetteville, NC - The state Labor Department is investigating the death of a Fayetteville man found inside a tanker truck at a Smithfield Packing plant.

A plant employee found Glenn Birdsong, 25, in the tanker Thursday morning, according to a company release.

Birdsong worked for the temporary agency Labor Ready, which has a contract to clean Smithfield's tanker trucks.

Juan Santos, a Labor Department spokeswoman, said the tanker contained sodium bisulfate, which has several industrial uses. It wasn't clear if Birdsong's death was caused by the chemical or if the tanker was empty at the time he died.

Safety rules prohibit entering tankers for any reason, according to the Smithfield release.

The plant employs about 5,000 people and is one of the largest pork producing plants in the world.

Source: The Fayetteville Observer

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