Injuries and Fatalities

For nearly a decade, Purdue’s Agricultural Safety and Health Program has published an annual summary of U.S. grain-related entrapments 2 and engulfments. (www.grainsafety.us). These summaries are based on data gathered, documented, and entered into Purdue’s Agricultural Confined Space Incident Database (PACSID). With support from the U.S. Department of Labor over the past three years, the search for incidents 3 was expanded to include not only entrapments at grain storage and handling facilities, but also asphyxiations, entanglements, falls, and electrocutions in and around all forms of agricultural confined spaces. This annual summary reflects this expanded effort to better understand the most critical hazards associated with a broader array of agricultural confined spaces. The Purdue expanded surveillance effort, in addition to gathering data on injuries and fatalities related to exposure to confined spaces, now uses the following definition of an agricultural confined space in its selection of relevant cases: Any space found in an agricultural workplace that was not designed or intended as a regular workstation, has limited or restricted means of entry or exit, and has associated with it potential physical and/or toxic hazards to workers who intentionally or unintentionally enter the space. As the result of using a broader definition for cases of interest, no fewer than 67 cases were documented in 2013. Of these approximately 51% were not related to grain entrapment. However, to ensure continuity of the data record on incidents involving grain and other free