News Release USDL: 95-435
Tuesday, October 24, 1995
Contact: Frank Kane, (202) 219-8151

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing to amend its grain handling standard to ensure greater protection to workers against engulfment and entrapment in the grain handling industry.

"We want to strengthen protection to avert tragedies such as the death of Charles Patrick Hayes, a 19-year-old employee who suffocated when he was engulfed by corn," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Joseph A. Dear.

Provisions in OSHA's current standard protect employees from hazards faced while walking on or underneath accumulations of grain within a grain storage facility. These hazards include engulfment and entrapment in the grain and grain handling equipment, which can result in asphyxiations, crushing injuries and amputations.

However, it does not apply to employees entering "flat storage buildings or tanks" unless entry is made from the top of the structure. OSHA intended the exception to apply only to entries that did not expose the employees to atmospheric, engulfment or entrapment hazards.

The final rule assumed that hazards from entry into flat storage structures only arise when the entry is made from the top, because employees would stand or walk on the stored grain. The text of the standard did not directly address situations in which the same hazards would be encountered during entries from lower levels. OSHA has learned that many entries take place from levels lower than the top of the structure in facilities with dimensions of greater diameter than height.

The tragic incident involving Charles Patrick Hayes occurred two years ago on Oct. 22, 1993, when he and two other employees were instructed to enter a Showell Farms, Inc., corn storage structure in De Funiak Springs, Fla., to walk down the corn. The workers entered the structure not at the top, but through an opening several feet above the ground.

The three men walked down the corn while an auger at the base of the structure was running. At one point, Charles Patrick Hayes sank into the corn up to his knees. The two other workers tried to pull him out, but he kept sinking as the corn began to avalanche, covering him and pushing in the direction of the auger. One co-worker left to shut off the auger while the other continued to try to pull him from the corn. Rescue efforts were unsuccessful, and he suffocated. No rescue equipment, observers, lock-out procedures, or other precautions had been taken to protect the workers during the entry.

Because the entry was not made from the top of the structure, questions arose later over whether the Showell Farms structure was a flat storage building as defined in the standard.

OSHA has determined that the present wording of the standard needed to be improved in order to assure that employees such as Charles Patrick Hayes have the protection that the standard intended to provide during entry. Therefore, OSHA has acted to amend the standard to accord with its original intent: to provide appropriate protection to all grain handling employees, including those who walk on or under stored grain in flat storage facilities.

Among other things, the revision would require the following:

• All mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment that could pose a danger to the employee during the entry must be deenergized and disconnected, locked-out and tagged, blocked-off, or otherwise prevented from operating.

• The employer must provide the employee with a body harness with lifeline, or a boatswain's chair to prevent the employee from sinking further than waist-deep in the grain.

• No employee is permitted to be in a location where an accumulation of grain on the sides or elsewhere could fall and engulf the employee.

Comments and requests for hearings must be postmarked no later than Nov. 20, 1995, and submitted in quadruplicate to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. H-117-B, Room N-2625, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D. C. 20210 (telephone 202-219-7894).

Comments of 10 pages or less may be faxed to the Docket Office if followed by hard copy mailed within two days. The OSHA Docket Office fax number is 202-219-5046.

Notice of the proposed amendments is in the Thursday, Oct. 19, 1995, Federal Register.