Sheldon, Iowa — Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has proclaimed this week to be Iowa Farm Safety and Health Week, a week designed to highlight agricultural safety and health.
Gretchen Mosher is Assistant Professor of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University, and she says one of the most common hazards on the farm is grain stored in confined spaces. She says that grain entrapment happens because people don’t always use caution, nor do they understand the forces exerted on the human body by grain.
Mosher says that when one becomes trapped in grain, an enormous amount of pressure is exerted on the body of the trapped person.
According to ISU Extension and Outreach, a 165-pound adult, trapped in just three feet of grain, requires 325 pounds of force to remove them. By the time that same individual is buried in six feet of grain, the force needed to remove them is 625 pounds.
Mosher talks about how to avoid becoming trapped in grain.
She says that grain in confined spaces isn’t the only hazard faced each harvest season.
Iowa Farm Safety and Health Week was scheduled to coincide with National Farm Safety and Health Week, which runs through this coming Saturday.
