News

Stand Up 4 Grain Safety week raises awareness

Hundreds of employees are injured or killed while working in grain-handling and storage facilities each year. Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week is raising awareness of hazards and offering tips to improve safety and prevent injuries.

Bill Donovan is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regional administrator in Chicago.

“The ag industry and sector is such an important piece to the American economy. It’s important that all these ag jobs are safe jobs. In order to keep the grain flowing, we want to make sure the work is done safe in order to move the product from the field to storage to out to where it’s needed. We want to keep it moving and we don’t want people to get hurt in the process,” he says. “…it’s important that we look at this because we know that six out of 10 workers that get trapped in a grain bin won’t survive.”  

The annual event is sponsored by OSHA’s national Alliance with the National Grain and Feed Association, Grain Elevator and Processing Society, and Grain Handling Safety Coalition.

He shares several steps for grain safety.

“You must turn off equipment and lock it out because grain moving is like quicksand. Before you enter a grain bin, you must have a plan or checklist. You have to test the air before you go in and make sure it’s safe to enter,” he says. “If you’re walking above the grain where you could be engulfed, you have to make sure you have a lifeline in the bin and that you’re attached to the lifeline.”

Donovan says other safety tips include placing a trained observer outside of the bin in case of an emergency; avoid entering a bin where grain is built up on the side because it could entrap a worker; and controling the accumulation of grain dust through good housekeeping procedures.

This year’s theme, “small changes, big impact” emphasizes that making small changes in the workplace can go a long way to improving safety. 

Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week kicked off April 4 and will conclude April 8. Free, virtual learning sessions were offered each day on various topics including electrical safety, heat stress and weather-related hazards, personal protective equipment, and slips, trips, falls, crush, and struck-by hazards.

Click here or here for more information.

Audio: Bill Donovan