A major safety outreach effort, the "Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention Awareness Week" from April 9-13, will help raise awareness about grain bin engulfment hazards, provide education and training, and convey safety best practices.
Made possible by a National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) alliance in collaboration with Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS) and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), the stand-up week will promote grain bin safety on both farms and at commercial grain handling facilities.
Kick-Off Event, Adrian, MO
The week will formally kick off with an event and press conference on Monday, April 9, at 1 p.m. Central at the Scoular grain facility located at 15 Quail Run in Adrian, MO, near Kansas City. The event will feature Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt, as well as a reading of the Governor of Missouri's Proclamation on Grain Bin Safety by Anna Hui, director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. NGFA Executive Committee Chairman John Heck, senior vice president of Scoular, Omaha, Neb., will host and moderate the event.
View the full agenda with speakers here.
Webinar
The week continues with a free webinar on April 10 that provides an overview of the material available on OSHA's engulfment prevention website. From April 11-13, NGFA will issue information for safety briefings on such topics as grain bin entry, mechanical hazards and grain engulfment.
Engulfment in grain is one of the leading types of fatalities inside a grain bin, however, there are numerous OSHA and industry resources available to assist in preventing future incidents. During the Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention Awareness Week, employers and their employees are encouraged to emphasize effective grain-bin safety practices to protect workers and ways to reduce injuries and prevent fatalities resulting from engulfment.
Companies may participate by providing a focused activity or toolbox talk on topics such as lock-out/tag-out, walk down, fall prevention, permitting or other prevention measures. These events are to provide information to workers about hazards, protective methods, and the company's safety policies, goals and expectations, while also serving as an opportunity to receive feedback from employees.
During these events, employers may be able to conduct site activities, such as employee training, hazard hunts, audits of prevention measures, corrections of identified hazards, and a review of lock-out/tag-out and engulfment-prevention measures and procedures. Participating companies will be encouraged to fill out information about their safety activities on this website, which provides training materials and a certificate of participation to demonstrate involvement in the engulfment-prevention initiative.
