Grain Safety Week focuses on safety and present dangers in farming
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Labor’s (IDOL) Division of Occupational Safety and Health (IL OSHA) is joining experts in the agriculture industry to promote safety in and around grain silos. Each year since 2017, one week is dedicated to expanding education, training and resources to improve safety techniques across the grain industry.
“Silos have the potential to be deadly when a proper safety plan isn’t in place,” said IL OSHA Division Chief Erik Kambarian, CSP. “Proper education, training and planning can be lifesaving.”
Each day of Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week offers a different educational opportunity, including preventative maintenance, emerging health issues, and heat & extreme weather. Because moving grain acts like quicksand, grain bin deaths happen in seconds. According to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a worker standing on moving grain can be trapped within just five seconds and covered in grain in less than half a minute. OSHA lists the following as the three most common scenarios leading to grain entrapment:
• A worker stands on moving/flowing grain typically caused by an auger running or grain being moved out of the bin by gravity.
• A worker stands on or below a grain bridging situation. Bridging happens when damp grain clumps together, creating an empty space beneath the grain as it is unloaded. A worker above or below this bridge of grain is at risk should the bridge collapse.
• A worker stands next to an accumulated pile of grain on the side of the bin and attempts to dislodge it. It can collapse onto the worker.
OSHA also stresses that any worker entering a grain bin should be provided with a body harness attached to a lifeline and a second person should be outside the bin to monitor for safety and call for help if something goes wrong. While there are close to 8,400 off-farm grain storage facilities, about 70 percent of entrapments happen on family farms. Grain accidents don’t just injure and kill farm workers. OSHA notes more than half of deaths in grain entrapment accidents are would-be rescuers.
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