Stop Workplace Slips and Trips

The chief cause of slips is (no surprise) a slippery surface, compounded by improper footwear.

There are two types of slips:

• In the first, the heel of the forward foot contacts the walking surface, then slips forward, and the person falls backward.
• In the second type, the rear foot slips backward and the walker falls forward.

The best hedges against slips and resulting falls and injuries are dry walking and working surfaces and slip-resistant footwear. On slippery surfaces, nonskid strips or floor coatings should be used.

Trips occur when the front foot strikes an object and is suddenly stopped. The upper body is thrown forward and a fall is the result. A relatively slight rise in a walkway can cause someone to stub a toe, also potentially resulting in a trip and fall.

Reducing the Risk

One of the biggest contributing factors to slips, trips, and resulting falls is improper housekeeping. One technique used by many businesses is painting yellow lines to indicate walking and working surfaces that should never be cluttered, slippery, or obstructed.

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Lighting can also be a factor, especially when employees move from light to dark, or dark to light areas of the workplace. Trips and falls can also result when workers are carrying large objects that obscure their vision.

Rubber mats that are skid-resistant on the top and bottom can also help. Safety signs, such as those announcing wet floors, are a good choice when hazards cannot be eliminated.

Supervisors and safety personnel should also regularly inspect walking and working areas to identify hazards, and take immediate corrective action whenever possible.

Also require all personnel at risk of slips and trips to:

• Wear proper footwear with nonslip soles.
• Report and clean up spills immediately.
• Report slips, trips, and falls so that they can be investigated and future incidents prevented.

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Training for Under $6 a Session!

Whether you’re training employees about safety and health hazards of chemicals or training on a whole range of other vital workplace safety and health topics, you have a friend in BLR. We can make training easy for you—and inexpensive.

Our Safety Meeting Repros provides you with 50 completely turnkey safety meeting modules, each responsive to a key OSHA regulation, with trainee materials in reproducible form—all for under $6 a session!

A supervisor on any shift can easily run the training session. All the trainer has to do is check off the outline items as he or she proceeds through the meeting, and trainees won’t miss a single point of importance. Then the trainer can follow up with the fully prepared quiz (with instantly available answers) and illustrated handouts that also come with each lesson.

Presto! You’ve completed a full training cycle, with little more work than running a copier, at a cost equivalent of under $6 a session.

We don’t think you can appreciate how much this program can ease your training task without looking it over. We invite you to do so at no cost (we’ll even pay any return shipping) and no risk. Here’s how you can arrange a trial run, at our expense.