Grain bins are no place to let your guard down. Every year we hear of people injured or killed after going into the bin and being sucked down into the grain.

Megan Schossow is the outreach coordinator for the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center. She recommends that you not go into the grain bin. But if you do, one of the most important pieces of safety equipment is a secured lifeline, or harness. It goes around the chest, shoulders, legs and groin, and is secured at two anchor points on the inside the bin. 

"If someone has this harness on and they’re walking around the top of, say, a crusted surface, any kind of jolting movement or jerk would basically trigger this life harness and they would stop moving," says Schossow. "So, you would either be buried to a much less extent or you would be held above the grain."

A person who is sucked into the grain but not completely buried is surrounded by two-thousand-pounds of pressure that makes it impossible for them to wiggle out. In these cases, she says a piece of equipment called a tube can be lifesaving.

"Often times they come as 2-3 pieces and they get wedged around that person so that you can dig the grain out and free them from the grain, and get that pressure off of their body so that you can free them."

Schossow says many people know the dangers but may not take the time to set up the safety equipment, especially if they just need to do something quick. Getting into the habit of being safe could save your life.