Engulfment is a serious workplace hazard that occurs when a person becomes trapped by flowable materials—such as soil, sand, grain, or liquid—that can move rapidly, collapse without warning, or block escape routes. These incidents often lead to injury, suffocation, or even death. They are most commonly associated with confined spaces like trenches, silos, tanks, and storage bins, where limited mobility and visibility increase the risk. Recognizing these hazards is critical for improving safety protocols and preventing fatal accidents in high-risk environments. Engulfment is further defined at OSHA – 1926.1202.

Engulfment hazards present themselves in many industries, job sites, and settings. These hazards exist in confined space hoppers, bins, and material handling machinery, as well as created in excavations, earth movement, mining operations, and more.

Confined spaces often pose an engulfment hazard since many of them can essentially function as containers. Large oil tanks, mine shafts, spoils pilings, trenches, and sewers can all be sites of engulfment.

Engulfment results when a worker is overcome by a granular substance such as soil, polymer pellets, grains, slurry, or aggregate/sand. Everyone can assimilate with quicksand and/or the term ‘buried alive.’ The hazards of engulfment are real, serious, and life-threatening/taking.

What is the danger of engulfment?

Engulfment can cause serious bodily harm when the surrounding material exerts enough force to injure or kill through constriction, crushing, or strangulation. In addition to physical trauma, respiratory hazards are a major concern. For instance, workers may suffocate after inhaling fine particles that fill the lungs or drown when submerged in liquids such as slurry or quicksand. These risks highlight the importance of recognizing and mitigating engulfment hazards in high-risk environments.

What is an example of engulfment?

A person experiences engulfment when liquid or flowable solid materials—such as grain, sand, or slurry—pull them beneath the surface, leading to injury or death through constriction, crushing, or strangulation.. This type of hazard is particularly common in agricultural facilities that store large quantities of grain, spices, and other foods in silos and confined spaces.

The term engulfment describes a dangerous situation where a person becomes swallowed up or immersed in a material—such as grain, sand, or liquid—which can lead to asphyxiation due to restricted airflow or drowning. For instance, inside a tank that fills with liquid while someone is inside, drowning by asphyxiation can occur.

What is an example of engulfment in a confined space?

Engulfment and suffocation pose serious risks when loose materials—such as grain, sand, or slurry—are stored in confined spaces like hoppers or silos. These hazards become even more dangerous when a condition known as bridging occurs. In tanks and silos, bridging creates a deceptive surface layer that appears stable but hides an empty space beneath. As unloading begins, this hidden void can collapse unexpectedly, trapping and engulfing anyone who attempts to walk across it.

Engulfment is also a significant risk in the agricultural industry. Silos, bins and other spaces that store grains, spices, and other foods in large quantities have the potential for engulfment.

3 Common Ways That Engulfment Occurs

• When you stand on moving or flowing grain, it can shift like quick sand, burying you in seconds.
• Moisture or mold can cause grain to clump and form a crust or bridge on the surface of a grain pile. As grain is unloaded, it may form a bridge over an empty space beneath the surface. If someone attempts to cross it, the bridge can suddenly collapse, leading to a dangerous engulfment incident.
• Grain that has accumulated on the side of a bin can un unexpectedly collapse.

MSHA Case study:

A front-end loader operator was loading sand into the feed hopper. He dismounted from the cab to retrieve two 55-gallon drum lids from the hopper when he fell into the hopper and became engulfed by the sand.

Control: Mine operators should equip feed hoppers with mechanical devices, grates/grizzlies or other effective means of handling material so that persons are not required to work where they are exposed to entrapment by sliding material.

Other Resources

MSHA Video: https://www.msha.gov/news-media/mediagallery/video/2017/01/18/quicksand
OSHA Quick Card: https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/confined_space_permit.pdf
NSSGA: https://www.nssga.org/sites/default/files/2021- 04/2021%20Engulfment%20Hazards.pdf
MSHA Hazard Alert: https://www.msha.gov/sites/default/files/hopper-safety-alert-01-
18-2017.pdf

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