By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

LONDON, Ohio — A portable auger is being pulled from the barn to the field. In the process, the auger clears an overhead power line by a few feet. Safe clearance, right? Think again.

“There is a misconception that as long as that equipment can clear the power lines then everything is OK,” said Dee Jepson, Ohio State University extension state safety specialist. “Even if you have that two-foot clearance that isn’t enough. Electricity can arc to the auger, wagon, combine, whatever equipment you may be operating at the time.”

Jepson will be spearheading an Agricultural Safety and Health Program exhibit at this year’s Farm Science Review. During this exhibit Jepson and her associates will take a look at various potential hazards on farms. Electrical hazards will take center stage this year.

“The first thing we tell the farmer is that it can happen to them,” Jepson said. “From a safety aspect we always talk about not coming in contact with power lines. But what most farmers don’t realize is that one can be electrocuted by coming close to the lines without even touching them. The electricity can arc and most don’t realize that.”

Jepson said one of the biggest dangers comes from tractors toting booms, portable augers or even combines with unloaders. In the last 10 years in Ohio there have been eight fatalities related to electrocutions, three of which were grain bin related.

“The minimum safe distance depends on what amount of voltage the power lines are putting out, and if a farmer doesn’t know then it’s time to find out,” Jepson said. “The general recommendation is 18 feet minimum safe distance, which is associated with power lines emitting 500,000 volts or more.”

According to Jepson, electricity arcs further as voltage increases, making it important to determine how much electricity the power lines are generating. For power lines up to 69,000 volts, minimum safe distance is 10 feet. For 115,000 to 138,000 volts it’s 11 feet. And for 230,000 volts, it’s 13 feet.

“The ideal situation would be to bury these lines. Unfortunately you run into some high costs when you do that,” Jepson said. “Another thing a farmer can do is lock out the electrical box so that no one else can walk by and accidentally turn on the power.”

In addition to sagging power lines, Jepson said dangers lurk where there are old, frayed wires, faulty conduits or rusted electrical boxes. Some wires, she said, become frayed when rodents chew the outer coating.

According to Jepson, the older the farm the more likely there are more signs of potential danger.

“Newer farms with newer structures take into account the types of equipment that farmers use nowadays,” Jepson said. “The older structures with lower power lines are more hazardous because now we have bigger combines and larger portable augers. When we retrofit things on the farm electricity should be one thing we should update.”

Downed power lines that have been knocked down by tractors also pose a huge threat to farmers, Jepson warns. At this year’s exhibit farmers will be shown how to shuffle the feet or crawl away from downed wires.

“With downed lines there are strong electrical fields traveling through the ground and simply running from the downed power simply isn’t enough,” she said. “Electrical fields are generated atop the ground. Again, you can be away from a downed line and still be electrocuted.”

In addition to electrical discussions, Jepson and her group will have other demonstrations, even inviting visitors to this year’s Farm Science Review to be “drowned” in seed and be rescued.

“It will be like a war zone,” Jepson said. “We’ll have a number of safety demonstrations and electrical safety is one of them.”

This self-guided exhibit will be held Sept. 22 in the Safety Education Area between Friday Avenue and Land Avenue on the exhibit grounds.