Stand Up 4 Grain Safety
Every year hundreds of employees are injured or die from preventable hazards while working in grain storage and handling. Safety doesn’t need to be big to be effective.
This year commit to safety by making small changes in the workplace on how tasks are performed to make a positive safety impact.
During the last week of March, make a commitment to safety and health. To help you, the standup4grainsafety.org website hosts:
- A week of free, daily webinars
- Resources to assist in developing training and education events
- A recognition certificate and ways to share your participation
Registration starts in March. Start planning your grain safety stand up events now.
Schedule time to focus on grain safety
A safety stand up is a voluntary event for employers to talk directly to workers about safety.
Any workplace can hold a stand up by taking a break to focus on hazards found in grain handling and storage environments and reinforcing the importance of safety while working around grain.
Companies can use this opportunity to have a conversation with workers about job hazards they face, hazard prevention and protection, and the company’s safety policies and goals.
It can also be an opportunity for workers to talk to management and provide direct input about hazards they see.
Stand-Up activities can range from short, 10-minute talks with employees to scheduled, full-day events. Pick what’s right for your company.
Some simple stand up ideas include:
- Attending one or all of the free, daily webinars hosted by standup4grainsafety.org
- Passing out a one page informational sheet or a fatality narrative about a grain incident to generate discussion among workers
Ideas that require more planning
- Contact a safety professional for an on-site consultation to review your safety programs and help you identify workplace hazards
- Set up a safety and health demonstration from an equipment vendor
Some stand up event focus areas can include:
- Auger Entanglement
- Combustible Dust
- Confined Space
- Crush and Struck By Hazards
- Engulfment
- Electrical Safety
- Heat Stress, Cold Stress, and Weather Hazards
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Slips, Trips, and Falls (STF’s)
Additional resources to help you handle grain safely
- Washington Labor and Industry’s Grain Handling Facilities webpage provides information on grain handling facility regulations and safety and health resources.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration Grain Handling page provides additional industry safety and health resources.
Augers
- Amputations from Augers in Grain Bins (L&I Hazard Alert November 2010)
Confined Space
- Pesticide Spray Tanks and Confined Space Danger (L&I e-Bulletin)
- Warning: Entering grain storage bins is extremely dangerous! (OSHA Brochure)
Chemical and Pesticide Safety
- Pesticide Spray Tanks and Confined Space Danger (L&I e-Bulletin)
Heat Safety
- Fatality Narrative: Farm Laborer Dies from Heat Stroke (L&I SHARP)
- Is it hot enough for you? Lone workers need to be aware of how to prevent and treat heat-related illness. (L&I SHARP Poster)
Motor Vehicle Safety
- Agriculture Fatality Narrative: Operator Run Over by Combine Harvester when Engine Started by “Hot-wiring” (L&I SHARP)
- Fatality Narrative: Truck Driver Hauling Grain Dies When Truck Crashes (L&I SHARP)