SPRINGDALE, Ark. – An ammonia leak discovered the morning of Sept. 4, at the Tyson Fresh Meats beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, halted production and resulted in 20 employees being sent to a local hospital for treatment. According to a statement from Tyson Foods Inc., 18 of the workers were treated and released while one was admitted to the hospital and the other was transferred to another hospital for treatment. 

The cause of the leak at the 61,000-sq.-ft. beef slaughtering and processing plant is being investigated but the facility has been deemed safe and officials planned to resume normal operations on Sept. 5.

“The health and safety of our team members is extremely important to us. We'll continue to investigate this incident so we can prevent repeating it,” the company said in a statement.

This past April, a fire at a Tyson poultry-processing plant in Dawson, Georgia, involved the release of ammonia and resulted in the plant suspending operations for several days. In May, an ammonia leak at the company’s Goodlettsville, Tennessee case-ready plant forced the evacuation of about 100 Tyson workers and contract sanitation workers.