By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

URBANA, Ill. — Accidents resulting in deaths and injuries at some commercial grain facilities in Illinois this summer have compelled the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take a proactive approach to conducting audits at some elevators, with inspectors looking to ensure that operators are complying with proper employee training standards and confined space entry plans.

The summer has also been marked by numerous grain fires at elevators storing last year’s corn crop, an issue experts say has to do with the condition of the stored grain.

With the observance of National Farm Safety and Health Week Sept. 19-25 and with Illinois’ corn harvest in full swing, officials with the Grain & Feed Assoc. of Illinois (GFAI) and the Center for Rural Health and Farm Safety at Carle Foundation Hospital shared thoughts about a possible upswing in fatal grain bin accidents in Illinois in 2010. This includes an incident in Mount Carroll which claimed two lives.

“Because of the incident in Mount Carroll and another in Hillsdale, the awareness for grain engulfment is on the rise,” said Jeff Adkisson, executive vice president of the GFAI, whose 220 members represent ownership of 900 elevators and 90 percent of the commercial grain storage space in the state.

“But I think that overall, the commercial grain industry, considering the volume of grain we move, has improved our safety record over the years. That’s not to say we don’t have room for improvement.”

Adkisson said engulfment hazards are the same whether one is talking about a farmer’s bin or a commercial bin.

“The reclaim hole may get plugged up, perhaps with a lot of pods or clumping. People will go in and try to unplug it, and once they are successful they are not able to escape the flow of the grain,” he said.

“A second thing we see is that sometimes grain will stick to the sides of the bin from moisture, so somebody may go in with a long rod. They think they are standing back far enough, and once it breaks loose, it comes down and engulfs them. Then it becomes a matter of whether it’s rescue or recovery.”

Grain “bridging,” in which a thin layer of grain conceals a hollow chasm underneath, is a third cause for bin mishaps, Adkisson explained.

“It looks from the top as if everything is fine, and somebody will start to walk across it only to have it cave in, causing an engulfment,” he said. “In the commercial industry, we have to fill out grain bin entry permits, there has to be a person outside when somebody goes in – there are a number of precautions that must be taken.

“Reclaim augers or conveyors are to be shut off and locked down so they can’t be turned on when someone is inside. These precautions have helped reduce the number of incidents over the years. Whenever there is a loss of life, that is so unfortunate,” Adkisson added.

According to statistics provided by Amy Rademaker, farm safety specialist at Carle Foundation Hospital of Urbana, there were 24 grain bin incidents resulting in deaths from 2000-09 in Illinois. There have been a total of 59 recorded deaths from bin accidents since 1986, the first year statistics were kept.

The deadliest years for bin mishaps during this decade were 2005 and 2008, with five deaths recorded each year, respectively.

“Our profession feels that statistically, yes, in 2010 there have probably been more (injuries and fatalities) than in past years,” said Rademaker. “Though we don’t have the 2010 data yet, we feel that at the end of the day there will be more.”

She said there could be several reasons for the perceived increase in elevator incidents this year. “As we were moving 2009 grain out of the bins in the spring, we had more people going in (bins) and dealing with the grain because the crop was so wet,” she said.

“We also saw more falls from the outside of grain bins, because farmers and operators were inspecting them more frequently due to the wet crop. Even crop adjusters were up in the bins when they normally wouldn’t have been.”

Preventing bin incidents at commercial elevators can sometimes be an impossible task, Rademaker admitted. “Even in the best of circumstances, if someone goes through a bridging situation even wearing a harness, you often can’t pull them out fast enough; you can’t get things shut off fast enough,” she said.

According to Adkisson, several recent grain fires at elevators in central Illinois may or may not reflect an increase in such blazes, which are usually caused by spontaneous combustion of old grain.

“I’m not sure if there has been an increase, but we’re sure hearing more about them,” he said. “A lot of it seems to deal with the quality of last year’s crop, for several different reasons. Last year’s crop came in wet, and we had to run a lot of that through the grain dryer. Some ran grain through the dryer twice.

“This corn didn’t keep well in the bins, for whatever reasons. When it heats up, it can cause fires. It isn’t anything the industry is doing wrong; I think it goes back to the quality of the kernels coming in. They didn’t really mature the right way.”

Rademaker said there is an increase in reported cases of respiratory illnesses because of farmers handling the moist 2009 crop.

“If farmers don’t have appropriate masks, they shouldn’t enter the bins,” she said. “We don’t think enough about the effects of long-term exposure (to grain mold and dust).”

Rademaker encourages elevator employees and farmers to slow down and to not cut corners when handling grain this harvest season. “It’s not worth becoming a statistic to save a little bit of time,” she said.

“If you witness an incident or engulfment, get help! If the auger is running, shut it off and call for help immediately. Never go in after someone. If you know how to turn the fan on without heat, do that.

“If you find yourself being trapped, cover your nose and mouth and breathe through that. If corn enters your nose and mouth, you will drown extremely quickly,” she explained.