There are a number of occupational hazards of grain facilities. These hazards can be mitigated through diligence and following proper safety procedures. Grain Facility Occupation Exposure is the quantifiable expression of workplace health and safety hazards a grain-handling facility employee is vulnerable to in performing their assigned duties. Exposure represents the probability that a given hazard will have some level of effect of a receptor of interest. This page utilizes data and information regarding grain facility occupational exposure in the United States.
The agricultural industry is consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous industries, with a fatality rate (24.9 deaths per 100,000) nearly seven times higher than the fatality rate for all private industry workers (3.5 deaths per 100,000). From 2003 to 2011, fatalities resulting from work-related injuries in agriculture totaled 5,816. On average, 243 agricultural workers suffer a serious “lost-work-time” injury, with five percent of these incidents resulting in permanent impairment. In 2012, the agricultural facilities reported 475 fatalities, thus making the sector with the industry with the highest fatal injury rate of any industry sector for the second year in a row, at 21.2 fatal injuries per 100,000 full-time workers.
While there are many different areas within the agriculture industry, this page will specifically limit its scope to grain-handling/storage facilities (such as grain elevators and grain storage bins). In grain-handling facilities, workers are exposed to a wide variety of occupational health and safety issues with the potential to significantly affect well-being of workers.
Exposure hazards
Suffocation or engulfment
Hazard definition
Grain entrapment occurs when victims are partially submerged in grain and are unable to remove themselves; grain engulfment occurs when victims are completely submerged in grain and unable to remove themselves. Grain engulfment seems to mainly occur at grain storage facilities such as silos or grain elevators, but can also transpire anywhere large quantities of grain are located, including freestanding outdoor piles. Grain entrapment incidents can occur very rapidly, taking only a few moments to completely submerge a worker, minutes to suffocate, and hours to locate and recover. Rescuing someone who has become engulfed in grain may be possible if the victim's airway remains unobstructed and they are able to continue breathing.
In the United States in 2010, 57 workers were engulfed in grain, resulting in 26 fatalities. In 2012, 19 workers were engulfed in grain, resulting in 8 fatalities.
Engulfment conditions/scenarios/causal pathway
Out-of-condition grain
Research has identified a link between out-of-condition grain and incidents of grain engulfment. Out-of-condition grain refers to stored grain that has become wet, clumped or has spoiled. Out-of-condition grain can increase occupational exposure to grain engulfment because of a tendency of low-quality grain to stick/clump together. When grain becomes excessively crusted together and/or cakes to walls of storage bins, workers enter grain bins to loosen grain to facilitate its removal. Below is a high-level overview of the causal pathway leading to grain entrapment:
Workers in the grain can become entrapped three ways: Entering a storage bin while grain is flowing. When standing/walking on an apparently stable surface that is actually a "grain bridge" (A hollow cavity that forms underneath a hardened surface layer of grain). A vertical mass of grain settled against a wall may suddenly give way while being cleared.
Entering bin to dislodge clumped grain
Out of condition grain (wet/moldy/etc.) is stored. Out of condition grain “cakes” the side of the bin or “bridges” across the bin. Worker enters storage unit to break up/dislodge out of condition grain. Out of condition grain collapses and the worker becomes engulfed.
Entering bin during grain removal
Worker enters storage bin. Auger starts to remove grain Worker becomes entrapped within 4 to 5 seconds. Worker becomes engulfed within 11 seconds.