For employees and supervisors at grain elevators, feed mills, flour mills and similar facilities: training, hot work permits, bin, silo and tank entry, flat storage entry, engulfment protection, housekeeping and dust, preventive maintenance and lockout, emergency escape and bucket elevators.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.272 · about 6 min read
Need proof of training? The full course (30 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.
The standard controls grain dust fires and explosions and other hazards at grain elevators, feed mills, flour mills, rice mills, dust pelletizing plants, dry corn mills, soybean flaking and soycake grinding operations. Some parts (emergency escape, dryers and bucket elevators) apply only to grain elevators.
The employer has an emergency action plan.
Training is given at least annually, before new employees start work, and when job changes bring new hazards. It covers dust accumulation hazards and ignition sources such as smoking, and job procedures such as cleaning grinders, clearing choked legs, housekeeping, hot work, preventive maintenance and lockout/tagout.
Employees with special tasks such as bin entry get specific training, including engulfment and mechanical hazards and how to avoid them.
Hot work (welding, cutting, brazing or similar flame-producing work) requires a permit, except where the person who would authorize the permit is present during the work, in employer-authorized welding shops, and in authorized hot work areas outside the grain handling structure. The permit is kept on file until the hot work is complete.
Contractors are told about known fire and explosion hazards of their work and area, the applicable facility safety rules, and the employer explains the applicable provisions of the emergency action plan to them.
A permit is issued for entry, unless the person who would authorize it is present for the entire operation. It certifies the precautions are in place.
All mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment that presents a danger is deenergized and disconnected, locked out and tagged, blocked off or otherwise prevented from operating by other equally effective means.
The atmosphere is tested for combustible gases, vapors and toxic agents when there is reason to believe they may be present, and for oxygen unless there is continuous natural or forced ventilation. If oxygen is below 19.5%, combustibles exceed 10% of the LFL, or toxic agents exceed the Subpart Z ceiling values or reach concentrations that would keep employees from rescuing themselves or calling for help, ventilation is provided until the unsafe condition is eliminated (and continued while it could recur), and an appropriate respirator is worn under 1910.134 if ventilation cannot eliminate toxicity or oxygen deficiency.
Walking down grain, walking on grain to make it flow, or being on moving grain is prohibited.
When entering from a level at or above the grain, or walking or standing on grain deep enough to engulf, the employee wears a body harness with lifeline (or boatswain's chair), positioned and sized to prevent sinking further than waist-deep. An alternative may be used where the employer shows the lifeline is not feasible or creates a greater hazard, and the alternative must also prevent sinking past waist-deep. The lifeline or alternative may be disconnected or removed when you are standing or walking on a surface the employer demonstrates is free from engulfment hazards.
An observer equipped to help is stationed outside, with constant visual, voice or signal line communication. The observer is trained in rescue, including how to call for more help, and rescue equipment suited to that structure is provided.
Do not enter underneath a bridging condition or where grain built up on the sides could fall and bury you.
Entry into flat storage through an unrestricted ground-level opening, with no toxic, flammable, oxygen-deficient or other atmospheric hazards, falls under paragraph (h). Where the grain is deep enough to engulf: a lifeline or alternative means the employer demonstrates will keep you from sinking further than waist-deep; augers and other grain transport equipment that present a danger deenergized and disconnected, locked out and tagged, blocked off or otherwise prevented from operating; no walking down grain or being on moving grain; and nobody underneath a bridging condition or anywhere grain on the sides or elsewhere could fall and engulf them.
A written housekeeping program sets how often and how fugitive grain dust is cleaned from ledges, floors, equipment and other surfaces.
At grain elevators, priority housekeeping areas include floors within 35 feet of inside bucket elevators, floors of enclosed areas containing grinding equipment, and floors of enclosed areas containing grain dryers located inside the facility. Dust over 1/8 inch there is removed immediately (or equivalent protection is shown).
Compressed air may be used to blow down dust only when machinery that is an ignition source is shut down and other ignition sources are removed or controlled.
Receiving-pit openings are covered by grates with openings no wider than 2 1/2 inches.
Preventive maintenance consists of regularly scheduled inspections of at least the mechanical and safety control equipment associated with dryers, grain stream processing equipment, dust collection equipment (including filter collectors) and bucket elevators, plus lubrication and other appropriate maintenance per manufacturers' recommendations or prior operating records. A certification record is kept of each inspection. Malfunctioning dust collection is corrected promptly, and overheated bearings and slipping or misaligned belts on inside bucket elevators are corrected promptly or removed from service.
Locks and tags prevent energy or motion during repair, service or adjustment, and are removed only by the employee who installed them (or, if unavailable, the supervisor) under established procedures.
Grain elevators provide at least two means of emergency escape from galleries (bin decks), and at least one means of emergency escape in tunnels of existing grain elevators (at least two in tunnels of elevators built after the standard took effect).
At grain elevators, inside bucket elevators must not be jogged (drive motors repeatedly started and stopped) to free a choked leg.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.272. It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1910.272(e). Your employer must still train current employees, and new employees before they start work, at least annually and when changes in job assignment will expose them to new hazards, in the general safety precautions of the facility (including recognition and prevention of hazards from dust accumulations and common ignition sources such as smoking) and in the specific procedures and safety practices for their job tasks; train employees assigned special tasks, such as bin entry and handling of flammable or toxic substances, to perform those tasks safely; and train any employee acting as an observer in rescue procedures, including how to get additional assistance, under 1910.272(g)(5).
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.