Employer requirements

When workers enter storage bins, OSHA has several requirements that must be followed, including:

• Lockout/tagout to ensure grain is not emptied or moved into or out of the bin while workers are inside.
• Prohibit “walking down” grain.
• Prohibit entry onto or below a “bridging” condition.
• Employees should use a body harness with a lifeline or a boatswain’s chair whenever they walk or stand on stored grain.
• Establish an observer to provide assistance in rescue operations, and ensure communications between the observer and worker in the bin are maintained.
• Before entering a bin, test the air inside for oxygen content and the presence of hazardous gases.

Source: OSHA

Major penalties

In recent months, OSHA has issued major penalties to various grain facility operators for alleged violations related to storage bin hazards.

• $1.6 million – The South Dakota Wheat Growers Association of Aberdeen, SD, was fined in the aftermath of a worker’s Dec. 22, 2009, engulfment and suffocation. Five other workers were at risk of being engulfed in the rescue attempt.
• $1.6 million – Tempel Grain Elevators LLP was fined for the May 29, 2009, engulfment and suffocation of a teen worker at the company’s Haswell, CO, facility.
• $729,000 – The August 2010 corn engulfment of a 49-year-old worker at Hillsdale Elevator Co.’s Geneseo, IL, facility led to additional violations found at its Annawan, IL, facility.
• $721,000 – At Cooperative Plus Inc.’s facility in Burlington, WI, a worker was buried up to his chest in frozen soybeans in February 2010. He was rescued four hours later.
• $550,000 – Two teen workers died and a 20-year-old employee was seriously injured while “walking down the corn” at Haasbach LLC’s Mount Carroll, IL, facility in July 2010.
• $465,500 – A 20-year-old worker was caught in a discharge auger while cleaning out a grain bin at Gavilon Grain LLC’s Morral, OH, facility in September 2010. The death prompted inspections and fines at two other Gavilon facilities in Ohio.

Source: OSHA