OSHA Promoting Grain Bin Safety in Seven Midwestern States

July 29, 2013- In five seconds, a worker engulfed in flowing grain cannot get out. That's less time than it takes to read the previous sentence. By sixty seconds, that worker can be totally submerged in flowing grain.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has been "working hard to change the 'it won't happen to me' mindset" said Nick Walters, OSHA Regional Administrator, in a recent news release titled "Learn & Live: Grain industry hazards lead to deaths, injuries each year."

The numbers are grim; more than 900 grain engulfment cases were reported in the past fifty years, with a 62 percent fatality rate. OSHA's Local Emphasis Program for Grain Handling Facilities, developed in 2010, has focused on engulfment along with five other hazards in the grain and feed industry: falls; auger entanglement; "struck by" injuries; combustible dust explosions; and electrocution hazards.

Efforts are now underway to work with universities and industry groups in Kansas, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin to develop more programs to train and educate.

"Grain handling injuries and deaths can be prevented if employers follow proper safety procedures," said Walters. "OSHA is working together with the grain and agricultural industries and the agricultural community to train employers and workers about the unique hazards of the grain and feed industry. Through training, decals, brochures, websites, and other means of information communication, we will continue to work to improve awareness of these hazards and the safety and health of workers on farms and in grain handling facilities. We are committed to preventing the injuries and deaths that have been too frequent in the industry in recent years."

In Illinois, OSHA, the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois (GFAI), and the Illinois Grain Handling Safety Coalition (IGHSC) have created a stop sign decal to adhere to grain bin doors using pictures and short phrases reminding entrants to lockout moving equipment, protect floor openings, ways to avoid engulfment (do not "walk down" grain and stay clear of waist deep grain) and to check the atmosphere for safe levels of oxygen, fumigants, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide.

Email requests for the decal to the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois at info@gfai.org.

Read the full post here.

For more information from OSHA related to grain safety, click here.

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