Grain entrapment, or grain engulfment, occurs when a person becomes submerged in grain and cannot get out without assistance. It most frequently occurs in grain bins and other storage facilities such as silos or grain elevators, or in grain transportation vehicles, but has also been known to occur around any large quantity of grain, even freestanding piles outdoors. Usually, unstable grain collapses suddenly, wholly or partially burying workers who may be within it. Entrapment occurs when victims are partially submerged but cannot remove themselves; engulfment occurs when they are completely buried within the grain. Engulfment has a very high fatality rate. While the death rate from workplace accidents on American farms has declined in the first decades of the 21st century, grain-entrapment deaths have not, reaching an all-time annual high of 31 deaths in 2010. Many of those victims have been minors. Agricultural organizations have worked to protect them and improve rescue techniques, as well as spread awareness among farmers of prevention methods. Primary among these is a federal regulation that forbids opening an auger or other opening at the bottom of a grain storage facility while someone is known to be "walking down the grain" within. Smaller family farms, however, are exempt from most federal labor regulation specific to agriculture, and no safety regulations govern children working for their parents. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed sweeping new regulations that would have changed this, prohibiting underage workers from entering silos, among other provisions. They were withdrawn after protests from farmers and politicians of both U.S. parties.
Occurrence I don't even recall how high the corn was. It came down and got me with no warning. Too fast, too much, and I don't like remembering it.
At some grain-handling facilities, employees "walk down the grain" on top of it to expedite the flow of grain from the top when it is being allowed to flow out the bottom. This is the most common cause of grain entrapments. Regulations issued by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) specifically forbid this at larger commercial facilities subject to them; most smaller farms are not. It may also be necessary to enter a grain storage facility to remove damp, clumped grain (usually from early spoilage) stuck on the walls. Entrapments have also occurred to children in grain transportation vehicles, or to those outside when grain is released from a storage facility or next to large freestanding grain piles. Workers in the grain can become entrapped in three different ways: an apparently stable surface may in fact be a "grain bridge" over an area beneath which the grain has already settled; a vertical mass of grain settled against a wall may suddenly give way while being cleared; moving grain will not support the weight of an average person. Once entrapment begins, it happens very quickly due to the suction-like action of the grain. Researchers in Germany found that an average person who has sunk into grain once it has stopped flowing can get out only as long as it has not reached knee level; at waist level assistance is required. Once the grain has reached the chest a formal rescue effort must be undertaken. Half of all entrapment victims eventually become engulfed. A human body in grain takes seconds to sink, minutes to suffocate, and hours to locate and recover. Recovered bodies have shown signs of blunt force trauma from the impact of the grain; one victim was found to have a dislocated jaw. At a depth of 1.5 metres (5 ft), the lateral pressure of grain, as experimentally measured by load cells placed against bin walls, is 5–7 kilopascals (0.73–1.02 psi); at 12 metres (40 ft) it is 20–30 kPa (2.9–4.4 psi), which appears to be its maximum. While those pressures are less than water at equivalent depths, they are measurements of active pressure against bin walls rather than the passive pressure a body would experience, which is always greater. A victim trapped horizontally faces greater pressures, 30 kPa (4.4 psi) at 1.5 metres (5 ft) and 90 kPa (13 psi) at 12 metres (40 ft). That pressure can make it difficult to breathe even when the victim's airway is unobstructed; it increases with every inhalation, making it more critical to secure breathing space for a victim in that situation. It has been likened to concrete, cement or quicksand; and described as making it impossible to even wiggle toes inside a shoe or boot; one survivor said he felt as if an "80,000-pound (36 t) semi truck had parked on [his] chest." The compression also makes it hard for blood to circulate, reducing the oxygen that gets to cells and increasing the amount of toxins in the system. Suffocation rarely occurs from the weight of the grain, but rather from the grain itself. If a victim's airway remains unobstructed, or they find an air pocket within the grain, they may be able to keep breathing and be rescued; the 40–60% porosity of stored grain makes it at least theoretically possible. In one instance a trapped person was able to survive for three hours. In 2013 an Iowa man wearing a battery-powered mask that filtered out dust, a result of his asthma, was engulfed two feet (61 cm) below the surface of 22,000 US bushels (780 m3) of corn in an 80,000-US-bushel (2,800 m3) bin. The respirator mask enabled him to survive, drifting in and out of consciousness for five hours until he was rescued by draining the bin slowly after efforts to pull him through the rope he was attached to failed. At that time, his heart rate was 173 beats per minute, near his maximum; he was hospitalized for two days afterwards.
Rescue
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
