Safety and health in on-farm biomass production and processing

There is significant interest in biomass production ranging from government agencies to the private sector, both inside and outside of the traditional production agricultural setting. This interest has led to an increase in the development and production of biomass crops. Much of this effort has focused on specific segments of the process, and more specifically on the mechanics of these individual segments. From a review of the scientific literature, it is seen that little effort has been put into identifying, classifying, and preventing safety hazards in on-farm biomass production systems. This article describes the current status of the knowledge pertaining to health and safety factors of biomass production and storage in the U.S. and identifies areas of standards development that the biomass industry needs from the agricultural safety and health community.