markdcatlin | Grain Elevator Dust Explosions c1980 OSHA @markdcatlin | Uploaded August 2017 | Updated October 2024, 8 hours ago.
This was clipped from the video, Safety and Health Hazards in Grain Elevators, produced by OSHA about 1980, to help train OSHA inspectors investigating grain elevators. The entire video is posted to my YouTube channel. Catastrophic grain explosions in the late 1970's killing more than 60 workers and Federal USDA grain inspectors, focused national attention on hazards associated with the grain handling industry. This increased attention by the government, the grain industry and labor unions representing grain workers, led to safety improvements in the industry. The four factors that must be present in any explosive situation are well known and provide a useful framework for thinking about ways to eliminate explosions in grain elevators. The four factors are: fuel source--in this case, grain dust. --oxygen. --ignition source. --confinement (a condition that contributes to turning a fire into an explosion). Any measure proposed to reduce the incidence of grain dust explosions must effect changes in at least one of these four factors. In 1979, a General Accounting Office (GAO) report, Grain Dust Explosions--An Unsolved Problem (gao.gov/products/HRD-79-1 ), investigated the grain dust explosion disasters of December 1977 and January 1978 and potential ways to prevent similar disasters. In this report, the GAO recommended that the U.S. Department of Labor evaluate the adequacy of its regulations to prevent grain elevators explosions. In 1987, OSHA issued its Grain Handling Facilities Standard (29 CFR 1910.272), which set mandatory minimum safety standards which maintains these improvements resulting in a 70% decrease in fatalities from grain explosions. On average, the Grain Handling Facilities Standard has prevented 5 deaths from explosions each year, according to the 2003 Regulatory Review of OSHA'S Grain Handling Facilities Standard [29 CFR 1910.272] (osha.gov/dea/lookback/grainhandlingfinalreport.html ). The video was copied from the U.S. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
This was clipped from the video, Safety and Health Hazards in Grain Elevators, produced by OSHA about 1980, to help train OSHA inspectors investigating grain elevators. The entire video is posted to my YouTube channel. Catastrophic grain explosions in the late 1970's killing more than 60 workers and Federal USDA grain inspectors, focused national attention on hazards associated with the grain handling industry. This increased attention by the government, the grain industry and labor unions representing grain workers, led to safety improvements in the industry. The four factors that must be present in any explosive situation are well known and provide a useful framework for thinking about ways to eliminate explosions in grain elevators. The four factors are: fuel source--in this case, grain dust. --oxygen. --ignition source. --confinement (a condition that contributes to turning a fire into an explosion). Any measure proposed to reduce the incidence of grain dust explosions must effect changes in at least one of these four factors. In 1979, a General Accounting Office (GAO) report, Grain Dust Explosions--An Unsolved Problem (gao.gov/products/HRD-79-1 ), investigated the grain dust explosion disasters of December 1977 and January 1978 and potential ways to prevent similar disasters. In this report, the GAO recommended that the U.S. Department of Labor evaluate the adequacy of its regulations to prevent grain elevators explosions. In 1987, OSHA issued its Grain Handling Facilities Standard (29 CFR 1910.272), which set mandatory minimum safety standards which maintains these improvements resulting in a 70% decrease in fatalities from grain explosions. On average, the Grain Handling Facilities Standard has prevented 5 deaths from explosions each year, according to the 2003 Regulatory Review of OSHA'S Grain Handling Facilities Standard [29 CFR 1910.272] (osha.gov/dea/lookback/grainhandlingfinalreport.html ). The video was copied from the U.S. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
