The Montana Grain Elevators Association has signed an alliance with the Montana Department of Labor and OSHA aimed at identifying, reducing and preventing workers' exposure to hazards in the grain handling industries throughout the state.

A company in Nebraska that allowed workers to enter grain bins while sweep augers were operating has been cited by OSHA for three safety violations. CPI-Lansing LLC, a grain storage facility in Red Cloud, was inspected in May under OSHA’s grain handling local emphasis program. Proposed penalties total $144,400.

A Kansas grain operation that was experiencing higher-than-national-average injury and illness rates has achieved a sharp reduction in those rates -- with some assistance from the Kansas Department of Labor.

OSHA has cited Southwest Feed Mills Inc. with 12 serious safety violations for exposing workers to combustible dust, falls, unguarded machines and other hazards at the company's Dallas facility. A December 2011 inspection was initiated as part of OSHA's Regional Emphasis Program on Grain Handling Facilities. Proposed penalties total $45,000.
 

Grain entrapment deaths dropped sharply in 2011, according to researchers at Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program.

A grain elevator explosion that killed six workers and left two others hospitalized has earned an Atchinson, Kansas company $406,000 in proposed fines.

During this, Agricultural Safety Awareness Week, OSHA is reminding grain elevator employers about the dangers of entering grain bins.

OSHA has cited an agricultural co-op with five safety violations, including one willful violation for failing to de-energize and lock out sweep augers before workers entered grain bins.

A worker died at an animal feed processing facility in NY because his employer sent untrained and improperly equipped employees into a dangerous work situation, according to OSHA, which leveled 21 violations against Harbor Point Mineral Products following the fatality.

Two Texas grain handling facilities were cited this week by OSHA for exposing employees to dangerous conditions. At one of them, a worker was engulfed while emptying grain from a storage bin.