Yesterday’s Advisor highlighted the problem of slip-and-fall injuries, particularly in restaurants. But the dangers of slips, trips, and falls are present in every industry, and failure to train your workers with a detailed prevention plan is a recipe for disaster.
Slips, trips, and falls are so commonplace that it would be easy to discount them as minor, everyday mishaps. But this category of accidents accounts for millions of injuries a year, including many fatalities.
Consider this: Slip-and-fall accidents are the second-leading cause of on-the-job deaths, and they account for 10 percent of all nonfatal workplace injuries.
No time to write safety meeting materials? You don’t need to with the 50 prewritten safety meeting modules in BLR’s Safety Meeting Repros program. All meetings are ready to use, right out of the box. Try it completely at our expense! Get the details.
Safe work habits, good housekeeping, and commonsense precautions can make a major impact on the incidence of slips, trips, and falls in the workplace. The Christian Brothers Services website offers these tips for reducing slip-and-fall accidents:
- Keep floors clean and dry. Immediately mop up spills and water on floor surfaces.
- Post warning signs for wet floor areas.
- If possible, replace tile or linoleum flooring with carpet.
- Clean one side of the passageway at a time.
- Eliminate uneven floor or sidewalk surfaces.
- Keep aisles, walkways and exits free from obstructions.
- Provide adequate lighting inside and outside.
- Ensure that stairwells are well-lit, stair treads and risers are up to safety code and free from obstructions, and handrails are sturdy.
- Document defects and actions taken to correct problems.
In an article on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, University of Florida researchers offered such additional recommendations as: conducting regular frequent inspections of working and walking areas; requiring all workers to wear proper footwear for their work and environment whether in the office, shop, plant, feedlot or field; and not permitting any riders on tractors, trucks, or other self-powered or towed equipment unless a safe seat or workstation is provided.
But, from a safety professional’s perspective, the two most telling recommendations were these:
- Owners, managers, and supervisors must make a commitment to prevent accidental slips, trips, and falls.
- Extensive safety training on the prevention of slips, trips, and falls should be provided for all new employees. Regular retraining should be provided for all employees.
Examine Safety Meeting Repros completely at our expense. Send no money. Take no risk. Get more info.
You know what slip-and-fall prevention measures you want to convey to your workers. But how do you get the message across—really get the message across? We asked our editors, and they unhesitatingly recommended BLR’s Safety Meeting Repros.
Safety Meeting Repros drives home your slip-and-fall prevention plan with examples and practical exercises such as:
● Taking photos of typical slip, trip, and fall hazards.
● Conducting a walking tour of random areas in the workplace, and asking participants to point out both potential hazards and safety measures already in place to prevent slips, trips, and falls.
● Asking your maintenance manager to address participants on the types of hazards to safe footing that they should report immediately. You might also ask your maintenance manager to reinforce the message of cooperation and good housekeeping.
That’s just a sampling of the advice you’ll get from Safety Meeting Repros’ 50 completely turnkey safety meeting modules, each responsive to a key OSHA regulation, with and with all trainee materials in reproducible form.
Just click the outline items off as you proceed through the meeting, and you won’t miss a single point of importance. Then follow up with the fully prepared quiz (with instantly available answers) and illustrated handouts that also come with each lesson. You’ve completed a full training cycle, with little more work than running a copier, at an average cost of under $6 a session.
There’s no way, however, to really appreciate how much this program can ease your training task without looking it over. You can do so at no cost (we even pay any return shipping) and no risk. Click for more information, or to arrange a trial run, at our expense.