To understand grain dust explosions, it is helpful to understand the elements that make up the fire triangle and the explosion pentagon. Many people are familiar with the fire triangle of heat, fuel and oxygen. By removing one of the three elements of fire, you can prevent or put a fire out.  OSHA says five elements must be present for a dust explosion to occur.  They are heat, fuel, oxygen, dispersion of dust and confinement. Industry experts sometimes refer to this as the explosion pentagon.  Like fire, if any of the 5 elements are removed, an explosion cannot occur.

“Those that don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”  This quote will be around forever. Which leads me into this blog post on “why conduct incident investigations?”  Simply put, so the same incidents are not repeated. Injuries are reported because OSHA requires it. However, many incidents stop at the report stage.

Falls in agriculture account for many serious injuries. One area I’d like to cover is falls from grain bins, silos and grain dryers. It’s difficult to quantify how many falls from bins there are because so many falls go unreported. Although less frequent than other falls in agriculture, falls from grain bins are more often severe to fatal.  In this blog, we raise several key issues that managers may consider for the sake of safety and fall protection.

Why would a big corporation’s safety culture model have any relevance to safety in Agriculture?  If you are not familiar with the DuPont Bradley Curve, I strongly suggest learning more about it as it can shape how you think about safety first and its effect on productivity, quality of work, the work environment and profitability. The Bradley Curve shows an evolution of an organization's safety culture. This model allows you to place your organizations' culture along the curve and give insights to the vision of zero injuries. 

This is the final part of a 3 part series on OSHA inspections.  If you have not read the previous parts, go back and do that:

Click here for Part 1 - Why would OSHA pay me a visit? and click here for Part 2 - What to do when they show up?.

Can you pass these 5 commonly cited areas with your operation?

On my last post; OSHA Inspection – What to do when they show up (part 2) we covered things to know prior to an OSHA inspection. In this blog I want to address what OSHA might be looking for when they arrive for an inspection. 

This is the second part of a 3 part series on OSHA inspections.  See here for the other parts:

• Click here for Part 1 - Why would OSHA pay me a visit? (Read if this before continuing if you haven't)
• Click here for Part 3  - What Will They Be Looking For?

If an OSHA inspector arrived at your operation this morning, would you be ready for an inspection?  The number of OSHA inspections in agriculture are expected to increase. OSHA recognizes more and more ag operations have more than 10 employees and these operations fall under their jurisdiction.  OSHA does not announce they are coming, in fact, advance notice is prohibited.

This is the first part of a 3 part series on OSHA inspections.  See here for the other parts:

• Click here for Part 2 - What to do when they show up? 
• Click here for Part 3  - What Will They Be Looking For?

There are 6 reasons that actuate an OSHA inspection in workplaces and they follow an order of priority. OSHA carefully prioritizes all complaints it receives based on their severity. It's best to understand them as each type can bring out an OSHA inspector for very different reasons. Normally OSHA conducts inspections without advance warning.

Chuck Palmer, partner in the Wisconsin-based law firm Michael Best & Freidrich LLP told a group sponsored by Farm Credit East says “OSHA is not going to give you advance notice of an inspection. They bank upon surprise.” It has been a trend over the last eight years. Because of limited resources, OSHA’s philosophy has been that of enforcement, the agency will send a notice to other employers that they could be next, much like motorists slow down when they see a police officer giving a driver a ticket on the side of the roadway.

It’s not uncommon to hear people say, “we are totally on board with safety training”, however their second statement is “but we can’t seem to get around to it”.  At the heart of this is procrastination. We all do it to some degree: putting off for tomorrow what should be started today.  We try to put things out of our minds but usually end up carrying the load subconsciously.

 Some of the world’s most disastrous accidents are related to sleep deprivation and fatigue; Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and The Challenger Explosion.  These well-known global catastrophes are a reminder that sleep is utterly crucial.

 When push comes to shove, many of us, when confronted with completing a task will extend our work day by first robbing our sleep time. Our sleep time is simply undervalued. The common link between these 5 disasters are; lowered alertness, inattention, and delayed reaction due to sleep deprivation.                 (also see Harvest Safety - Preventing Fatigue)

Combines have been rolling throughout the Midwest through mostly very dry conditions.  Clouds of dust can be seen for miles where combines have been.  These dry, dusty conditions also make it ideal for combine fires.  One component in fire protection I’d like to cover is the pressurized water extinguishers. Though normally seen on balers, we also see them on combines.