Ensure machine and equipment guards remain in place.Train employees in the recognition and control of hazards.Ensure that equipment is turned off and disconnected from its energy sources before cleaning or maintenance.In this example, the worker died when he was pulled into a mortar mixer that was actively operating and not locked out. A safety procedure that applies to this case is “lockout/tagout,” which requires turning off and disconnecting machinery or equipment from its energy source(s) before performing service or maintenance. Workers must be trained in safety procedures. Rescue workers dismantled the drive mechanism to reverse the mixing paddles and extricate the worker. Emergency medical services was called and responded within minutes. A co-worker heard the commotion, ran to the machine and shut it off. He ran to the mixer and attempted to turn it off, but could not disengage the gears, so he yelled for help. A painter working near the victim heard yells for help and saw the victim’s arm stuck in the machine and his body being pulled into the rotating mixer paddles. The victim was cleaning the mixer at the end of his shift to prepare it for the following day. OSHA’s Hazard Alert: Dangers of Engulfment and Suffocation in Grain BinsĪn 18-year-old worker died after becoming entangled in a portable mortar mixer at a residential construction site. OSHA’s Grain Handling Facilities Safety and Health Topics Page OSHA Regional News Release, November 23, 2009 Ensure a permit is issued for each instance a worker enters a bin or silo, certifying that the precautions listed above have been implemented.If toxicity or oxygen deficiency cannot be eliminated, workers must wear appropriate respirators. Provide and continue ventilation until any unsafe atmospheric conditions are eliminated.Test the air within a bin or silo prior to entry for the presence of combustible and toxic gases, and to determine if there is sufficient oxygen.Provide training about engulfment and mechanical hazards to employees assigned special tasks such as bin entry.Prohibit workers from entry into bins or silos underneath a bridging condition, or where a build-up of grain products on the sides could fall and bury them.Ensure the observer is equipped to provide assistance. Provide an observer stationed outside the bin or silo being entered by an employee and maintain communication between the observer and the employee who enters.The body harness should have a lifeline that is positioned and is of sufficient length to prevent a worker from sinking further than waist-deep in grain. Provide each worker entering a bin from a level at or above stored grain, or when a worker will walk or stand on stored grain, with a body harness.Prohibit walking down grain and similar practices where an employee walks on grain to make it flow.Moving grain out of a bin creates a suction that can swiftly pull and bury any workers who are in the bin. Standing on moving grain is deadly the grain can act like quicksand and bury a worker very quickly. Turn off, disconnect and lock out all powered equipment associated with the bin that poses a danger to employees inside the grain structure, including augers used to help move the grain, so that the grain is not being emptied or moving out or into the bin.In addition, child labor laws made it illegal for this company to employ a 14-year-old to work in a grain silo. This company ignored that rule as well as other protective safety requirements. OSHA standards prohibit this dangerous practice. Workers should never be inside a grain bin when it is being emptied out, because a sinkhole can form and pull down the worker in a matter of seconds. The suction created by the flowing grain pulled them in like quicksand and suffocated them. The workers were not provided safety harnesses, and the machinery used for evacuating the grain was running. Two young workers (ages 14 and 19) were killed at a grain storage facility in the Midwest when they were sent into a grain bin to “walk down the corn.” The grain bin was being emptied, and the workers’ task was to break up clumps by walking on them to make the corn flow out of the bin.
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