WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — There was a 25 percent increase last year in the number of cases involving injury and death in grain bins and other confined spaces on farms in the U.S.

 

The number, though, is still below the 10-year average. Those were among the findings contained in the 2016 Summary of U.S. Agricultural Confined Space-Related Injuries and Fatalities report, issued by Purdue University. According to the report, there were no fewer than 60 cases in 2016, and half of those were fatal.

 

The fatalities were six higher than the year before, and 29 of the cases from 2016 were directly related to grain entrapments.

 

The actual number of occurrences is likely 30 percent higher, officials said, because a comprehensive or mandatory reporting system is lacking for much of agriculture and some within the industry are reluctant to report non-fatal injuries.

 

The reported number of cases in 2016 is nearly equal to the five-year average and seven cases below the average for the previous 10 years.

 

Nebraska had the highest number of documented confined space cases last year with seven; Iowa was next with six; and Indiana followed at five.

 

There were four cases each for Illinois, Michigan and Kansas and three cases apiece in Ohio, Minnesota, South Dakota and Arizona, according to the report. The findings also show just four of the cases in 2016 involved females.

 

There were eight cases involving children or people under 21, and 12 cases involved someone above 60. The grain entrapments involved corn in 30 percent of the reported cases, soybeans in 13 percent and wheat in 7 percent.

 

According to the report, out-of-condition grain continued to be the most significant contributing factor in the entrapments, while vertical and horizontal crusting producing difficulties in removing residual grain was identified frequently in the cases.

 

Since 1962, the highest number of total confined space mishaps resulting in death or injury in the U.S was in Iowa with 228. Indiana was next at 220, according to the report. States in the Southeast had many fewer cases, with North Carolina at 31. Kentucky at 16 cases and Tennessee at 10 – and no fatalities from confined space accidents were reported anywhere in that region.

 

1,316 of the total cases since 1962 were reported from the Midwest, compared to 619 documented cases for the remainder of the nation.

 

The report also shows the 30 confined space farm mishaps resulting strictly in death in 2016 greatly exceeded the number of mining fatalities, which stood at nine.

 

In 2015, though, there were 27 mining deaths compared to 24 deaths that occurred in grain bins and other confined areas on the farm, according to the report.

 

According to Purdue farm safety experts, there is a site providing resources for conducting safety and health training in the area of confined agricultural spaces at www.agconfinedspaces.org

 

More than 8,500 visits have been logged since the site was put online in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Labor.

 

Among the helpful data is curriculum developed for young and beginning workers in the grain industry that’s available for download at no cost, officials said. More than 3,000 emergency first responders have undertaken training using this material.