Farmer engulfed then asphyxiated by corn in grain bin

Details

• Personal Author:
  Madsen, Murray D. ; Ramirez, Marizen ; Stewart, Robert L.
• Corporate Authors:
  Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (Iowa FACE) ; University of Iowa. College of Public Health. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Description:
  During March 2009, a 70-year-old farmer died in a grain bin on his 600 acre (242 hectare) farm in southeast Iowa. The victim and two other men began unloading shelled corn through the side door of a corrugated steel bin. They used a grain vacuum to pneumatically convey the corn from the bin into a waiting semi-truck trailer. The victim entered the bin, something the lifelong farmer had done many times, to hold back and meter spoiled corn as it mixed with other corn flowing toward the grain vacuum at the side door below. He became entrapped and then engulfed in the flowing grain. The victim in this event, which was not witnessed, was recovered by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and transported to a local hospital where death was pronounced. The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation due to submersion in grain within a bin. Recommendations: 1. Place signs warning about the hazards of confined spaces at all entrances to bins. 2. Allow no one to enter or be inside a bin during loading or unloading. 3. If a grain bin must be entered, use a safety harness and three-person team for the entry. 4. Break up surface crusts or clumps from outside the bin.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Confined Spaces Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-processes Agricultural-workers Confined-spaces Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 7 Safety-equipment Safety-practices Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE09IA012
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040550
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-107465
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 09IA012, 2011 Jun ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2006/07/01
• End Date:
  2021/06/30
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:510618a7818d70d1f9eb781ca4644358eea26deb17b7d9bae452dbb498b4bf3d35a0527f0f74f7ff0b07174b71ab935ff596eb9024df033a349c45f90d8f7f5a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165220/cdc_165220_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 188.08 KB ]