SLIP-AND-FALL ACCIDENTS

By Jonathan Bell
As seen in

Occupational Health & Safety Magazine
December 1995
A great deal of attention has been focused on ergonomic design of furniture, workstations, and other equipment to reduce the growing number of repetitive-motion injuries. However, no one seems to be looking at ergonomics as it applies to slip-and-fall accidents.

An opportunity is being missed. Slips and falls are one of the biggest causes of injuries in business and industry today. Ergonomics may be part of the solution.

Generally, ergonomics is considered the science of designing workplaces (or other areas) so as to encourage the most economic expenditure of human effort. In modern usage, however, the term has often been applied to problems in the workplace that emerge as injuries affecting the performance of people's jobs. Injuries caused by repetitive motion, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, are classic examples. The response has been to redesign the workplace in some way to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of such injuries, and we are now surrounded by "ergonomic" chairs, desks, workstations, and computer keyboards.

A far more costly threat to productivity is the everyday slip-and-fall accident. For each of the last several years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, slip-and-fall accidents have accounted for about 10 percent of all the non-fatal workplace injuries in the U.S. Many of these injuries are much more serious than carpal tunnel syndrome, involving head and back injuries that require lengthy recovery.

The National Safety Council reports that the average cost of a "disabling" injury-meaning one that causes time lost from work, even for one day-topped $27,000 in 1993.

A slip-and-fall accident involves many "hidden" cost, such as training a replacement for the injured worker and overtime pay needed to catch up on lost production. This is a tremendous burden on American businesses.

Though the benefits of ergonomic changes in the workplace are hard to pin down in terms of real savings, reducing slip-and-fall accidents can have an immediate and highly visible "return on investment" because of such accidents' high cost.

Slip-and Fall Threats Abound
One factor in these accidents is the amazing number of opportunities for slips. They are present even in companies with the best housekeeping. Think of the possibilities: wetness near doors and loading docks, condensation from chemical storage tanks, grease, and oils from production or from maintaining vehicles and machinery, cleaning substances, spills of fluids used in production, metal stairs on a humid day. And those are just the indoor hazards.

One of the critical factors is the need for workers to cross or work on public areas where the employer has no control over the surface.

For example, firms scrape and salt their own drives in winter to protect people, but they have no control over the footing under the worker repairing a machine in the field or crossing a public street to his or her car.

A third factor, often overlooked, is fatigue. Many workers must stand or sit in the same place for hours each day. That takes an unseen toll on the feet and legs.

Slip-and-fall accidents have accounted for about 10 percent of all the non-fatal workplace injuries in the U.S. for each of the last several years.

Finally, many workers don't acknowledge these risks, or they minimize the danger. The result is thousands of slip-and-fall accidents each year that could have been prevented and millions of dollars in lost profits.

Applying Ergonomics to Slips and Falls
How do you apply an ergonomic solution to slips and falls? The goal is to work toward the most economical effort for the worker, thus helping cut accident costs. There are three basic steps:

1. Analyze and change the environment.
2. Analyze and change the equipment your people work with.
3. Change your workers' minds.

This is the same process you use in redesigning a work center to eliminate sore backs. In the case of slips and falls, changing the workers' environment really means studying the floors they walk on. Floors can be changed to a degree to prevent slips. Especially greasy areas can be roughened by applying coatings, friction decals, or a rougher surface. Traffic patterns can be analyzed and changed. Obvious hazards such as leaks can be corrected. Signs, high-visibility paint, and color-coding can call attention to dangerous areas. Housekeeping can always be improved.

The next step is to change the equipment the workers use. That suggests the obvious: If you can't change every low friction surface, try to put better traction on the shoes the workers wear on those surfaces. High-traction footwear is a flexible solution to the problem of slips and falls. Then workers take their accident prevention with them wherever they go. It's cost-effective, and it works.

High-traction footwear means more than rubber boots for all workers. Standard rubber boots will help on dry surfaces, but they can be more slippery than regular shoes when the going gets wet. Manufacturers have put a fair amount of technology into true high-traction footwear, and it pays to study your options.

One example is a boot in which traction is provided by aluminum oxide grit embedded in the soles. The grit is in strips that are angled-instead of running straight across the sole-for better grip. This angled design mimics the metatarsal bones of the foot to maximize surface contact.

Another key element of the design is a series of grooves between the angled strips of grit. These grooves use the natural walking motion of the foot. This is important because no matter how good a safety product is, workers will not use it if it is difficult or inconvenient for them. Good high-traction footwear will have features like extra-wide openings to accommodate thick boots and special smooth areas inside the heel to help the workers put them on and remove them easily.

How about fatigue? Again, the ergonomic approaches are to try to change the environment and to change the equipment. Some companies install mats to improve the underfoot environment and ease the load on machine operators' feet. Many footwear makers offer cushioned insoles that fit any work shoe or boot and help prevent fatigue in feet, ankles, knees, and backs.

Training Can Help
Safety training gets less attention than it should at many companies, partly because managers don't always know how to conduct safety training effectively. Most suppliers of safety equipment are more than happy to assist in training.

Whether or not OSHA regulations on ergonomics are ever implemented, the ergonomic approach to workplace problems seems sure to spread. It has already reached into many areas where no one ever expected ergonomics to go. Look for this trend to continue.

 

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