GRAIN ENTRAPMENT IS AN AGRICULTURAL INJURY IN WHICH A PERSON ENTERS A GRAIN BIN OR SILO TO DISLODGE A BLOCKAGE CAUSED BY OUT-OF-CONDITION GRAIN AND BECOMES PARTIALLY OR FULLY ENTRAPPED OR ENGULFED IN GRAIN. EACH YEAR IN THE US, APPROXIMATELY 30 GRAIN ENTRAPMENTS OCCUR, WITH A ROUGHLY 50% OF THE PEOPLE ENTRAPPED DYING. IN 2019 AT LEAST 38 INDIVIDUALS WERE ENTRAPPED WITH GRAIN; 61% DIED. THIS WAS 27% LARGER THAN NUMBER OF INCIDENTS REPORTED IN 2018 AND THE LARGEST NUMBER OF INCIDENTS SINCE 2014 WHEN 38 INCIDENTS WERE REPORTED. UNFORTUNATELY, 2020 MAY BE SIMILAR, WITH 5 ENTRAPMENTS HAVING ALREADY OCCURRED IN ILLINOIS BY THE END OF THE FIRST QUARTER. THIS IS THE LARGEST NUMBER SINCE 2010 WHEN 10 ENTRAPMENTS WERE REPORTED IN ILLINOIS THAT YEAR. IT APPEARS THAT GRAIN ENTRAPMENTS ARE HIGHLY CYCLICAL AND TEND TO PEAK IN YEARS WITH LATE HARVESTS DUE TO EITHER SPRING OR FALL RAINS THAT DELAY PLANTING OR HARVESTING, SUCH AS 2009-2010 AND 2019- 2020. THE PERSISTENCE OF THIS ISSUE DESPITE SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT IN TRAINING PROGRAMS HIGHLIGHTS THE URGENT UNMET NEED FOR TESTING ALTERNATIVE PREVENTION SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE GRAIN ENTRAPMENTS. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO TEST AND VALIDATE THE EFFECTIVENESS AND SAFETY OF USING HIGHPOWERED AIR COMPRESSORS AS TOOLS TO BREAK APART OUT-OF-CONDITION GRAIN BLOCKAGES WITHOUT PEOPLE TO ENTER GRAIN BINS. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION AND ADOPTION OF THIS PROJECT COULD LEAD TO SUSTAINED DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF FARMERS AND WORKERS DYING OR BEING INJURED IN GRAIN ENTRAPMENT INCIDENTS.