Does Your Flooring Prevent—or Cause—Falls?

A 2009 voluntary standard from ANSI can help take the guesswork out of decisions about safe flooring, says Russ Kendzior, founder and chairman of the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI).

The standard is B101.1-2009, Test Method for Measuring Wet SCOF of Common Hard-Surface Floor Materials. Kendzior describes B101.1 as "the first comprehensive floor safety standard."

In the past, he says, fall-related claims resulted in unnecessary litigation because there were no rules addressing the slipperiness of hard-surface floors, especially when wet. The ANSI standard, says Kendzior, provides a way to measure risk.

Three Traction Levels

B101.1 describes three traction levels based on a measurement known as a wet Static Coefficient of Friction (COF). It measures the traction of hard-surface floors when wet.

Under the standard, a high-traction-level floor has a COF rating of 0.6 or greater. This, according to Kendzior, is proven to reduce slip, trip, and fall claims by 90 percent. "That’s the zone you want to be in because it has the lowest risk for slipping."

A floor with a moderate traction level has a wet COF rating of between 0.4 and 0.6, the zone in which most industrial and healthcare facility floors would probably fall if tested.

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The lowest traction level described in the new standard is below 0.4. "These are the floors that are causing the problems—greasy restaurant kitchens, auto repair shops, and poorly maintained industrial floors linked to injury claims," Kendzior says. "They present the highest risk of injury and need to be corrected immediately." This can be done by changing out the floor itself, or by altering cleaners, rugs, shoes, and other products and equipment in use.

The B101.1 standard was approved in fall 2009. While OSHA will not adopt the ANSI standard, Kendzior believes inspectors will ultimately reference it in the agency’s walking/working surfaces standards.

Representatives from OSHA joined those from CDC, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, the National Safety Council, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the committee that developed the ANSI standard.

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