A24-Lii>CMt»r Fuming, Saturday, Juna 25, 1994
Farmers Tell Of Experiences With Deadly Silo Gas, Molds
(Continued from Pago At)
he moved as quickly as he could to
the top of the silo, stuck his head
through the doors, and breathed in
the fresh air coming up through the
pipe.
For a while, Rodney admitted
feeling “pretty good. I knew I was
a little light-headed and I knew it
was kind of dangerous to be up
there, too, in that condition, but 1
knew it was also better than having
tried to get down die chute, with
the gases engulfing me, and I
would never have made it to the
bottom.”
Later on, he realized, if he
would hav4 gotten a few seconds
of the gas directly, he could simply
have passed out and tumbled down
the chute.
“I waited up there for about IS
minutes, breathing fresh air. I
waited until it was clear and then
crawled back down the chute to sil
age level, and crawled in, and we
got the fresh air.”
The split second he threw the door open,
Rodney knew something hit him . *A cloud
of gas hit me , dark gas , and it surprised
me,*
Feeling confident, Rodney
started to work on leveling off the
silage. He was then joined by his
brother Jere. It took them about
three hours.
They felt weary from the work
but managed to return home. They
still felt lightheaded but thought
nothing of it
Until about seven that evening.
”1 started feeling kind of bum,
lightheaded, short of breath. I had
some chills. I felt pretty rotten.”
Rodney thought that if he could
just get a good night’s sleep, may
be he could get some rest and be
OK the next morning.
When he awoke the next day,
the first thing he had to do was
cough. “I had a tickle in my throat
Then I felt a gurgling in my
chest’ ’ Rodney said he thought his
lungs sounded full of fluid.
He started coughing up blood.
He couldn’t catch his breath.
It was then that he thought I’m
not going to make it
“I thought I was done, I was
gone. I was scared.”
However, Rodney forced him
self to calm down. He went downs
tairs to lie on the porch and man
aged to get his breath.
In the meantime, Rodney spoke
on the two-way radio to his father,
John, also a dairyman, to see how
.Rodney’s brother Jere had gone up the chute before, pic
tured here, and gases were already ejecting down the chute.
Jere was doing and to tell them he
was going to the hospital. The
elder Martin told Rodney that Jere
was having similar symptoms and
asked, “Do you want another
passenger?”
By 6 a.m„ Rodney and Jere
were in the emergency room at
Lancaster General Hospital, a full
12 hours after the exposure.
Immediately the emergency
room technicians and doctor on
staff hooked them up to IVs and
put them on oxygen. The techni
cians tan a “blood gas" lest to
check how much oxygen was in
the blood. The doctor told them
that a reading of 90 was normal
and 60 was “critical.”
Rodney’s reading was 57. Jere’s
stood at 61.
"With oxygen, we could
breathe much better again,” said
Rodney.
The doctor told Rodney that silo
gas, nitrogen dioxide, literally
bums the lungs, causing a reaction
by the body. The reaction creates
fluid in the lungs, further blocking
the absorption of oxygen from the
air we breathe. Eventually, the
buildup could have been so severe
that oxygen could have been cut to
the heart, killing both of them.
The doctor told them that a criti
cal dose of the gas on the spot
could have killed them. The
brothers were fortunate that the
dose was not lethal and that they
arrived for treatment when they
did. Within 24 hours, their situa
tion could have caused them to
lose consciousness and perhaps
suffer a heart attack.
The brothers spent more than
two days in the hospital. They
were given steroids to block the
body’s reaction the buildup of
fluid in the lungs and were
monitored for blood oxygen
levels.
Rodney remembers the ordeal
because he had to take deep, con
centrated breaths. “If you simply
laid there and took shallow
breaths,” he said, “a monitor
alarm would sound.”
Rodney returned home on the
weekend. In the meantime, his
family helped with the chores. He
began returning to light chores and
within two weeks after the acci
dent, resumed work full-time.
SILO GAS A DEADLY TOXIN
This Is an Illustrated outline of Rodney Mar
tin’s silo, filled about 12 hours earlier with hay
lage. Note the valley In the center and the bull-
SILO GAS du P of the deadly silo gas.
HAYLAGE
“The doctor’s comment was
there should be no long-term
effects,” said Rodney. “He said
you shouldn’t have any long-term
shortness of breath, the lung
capacity is still very adequate, and
you shouldn’t die young from any
lung disease or anything like
that”
The mistakes he made could
have cost him a great deal, and
Rodney believes he is fortunate.
He said that farmers don’t real
ize that haylage gas can be just as
deadly as corn silage gas.
Although he’s heard stories of
exposure, it didn’t hit home until
his experience.
“I never thought that much
about it. Some people have the
concept that haylage does not pro
duce the amount of gas that com
silage or ryelage does. That’s
fictitious.”
Farmers should not wait any
amount of time after filling the silo
to level it off and close it up.
The lessons he wishes every far
mer could leam would be to “get
up there immediately following
the last load of silage before any
heating occurs, any fermenting
occurs, and get the job done right
away.
“When the blower is still
hooked up and the last load of sil
age just went up, get up there and
get the job done,” he said. “That’s
the real key.”
If farmers must enter a silage
Gas
Chute
«
area after it is filled, or if they work
around the toxic gases at any time,
a simple cloth or carbon filter will
not offer them any safety. At the
least, farmers should wear a self
contained breathing apparatus,
like SCUBA equipment divers
wear or equipment worn by the fire
company rescue personnel.
(More on safety measures will
be featured in the next articles in
this series.)
Rodney thought back to the
Rodney got about two whiffs of the toxic
gas and could feel it bum the whole way
down his throat.
times he heard stories where far
mers thought they might have just
been experiencing a cold or flu.
The symptoms could have indi
cated an allergic reaction to gas
exposure.
Whatever the case, Rodney said
he was willing to speak about the
experience in order that other far
mers could avoid the same mis
takes and end up in the hospital.
“I gave my pointers because
this might save somebody else’s
life,” he said.
Rodney believes there are
“many risks you’re exposed to
around the farm everyday,” he
said. “It’s important to be ready,
because your time could be up
anytime.”
ilo Doors
Valley
I
v %
Ken Kirkland
Ken Kirkland, an ag science
major at Penn State, remembers
the day as a kind of painful mem
ory, one he can’t forget
When he was 14 years old, on a
mid-September day, he filled a silo
with com silage. About two weeks
later, he returned With a hired hand
to remove silage. He took the cov
er off, and out came some gas.
For a time, Ken didn’t think
much about it and continued with
other chores. The impact of what
happened didn’t become clear
until later that evening.
Ken could remember having
trouble catching his breath. He felt
his chest tightening and felt weak
and lightheaded.
At 11 p.m. that evening, hours
after the exposure. Ken was ready
to go to bed, but was frightened.
“I didn’t want to go to bed,” he
said. “I was afraid something
would happen in the middle of the
night.”
Instead. Ken was taken to India
na Hospital. They put him on a bre
athing apparatus, and he still
remembers how scared he was,
because he couldn’t get his breath.
(Turn to Pago A 25)
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