Bringing Awareness to Grain Engulfment Prevention

Kansas Grain and Feed Association, along with National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are launching a safety effort awareness week April 9 – 13 titled, “Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention Awareness.”

The whole week is devoted to raising awareness on grain bin engulfment hazards, provide education and training and convey best safety practices. Made possible by the NGFA-OSHA Alliance in collaboration with Grain Elevator and Processing Society, the stand-up week will promote grain bin safety on both farms and at commercial grain handling facilities.

See below for a complete schedule of the week’s events. View all safety materials by visiting Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention Awareness’ website here.

Background and more information:

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.

KGFA/NGFA/OSHA have provided several resources, including Safety Tip Sheets, guidance documents and training videos for companies wishing to become involved in the “Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention” campaign on the campaign website. The material also is available on the Safety section of the NGFA website.