Get a Grip on Slips, Trips, and Falls

Across industries and across the years, slips, trips, and falls (STFs) continue to be among the leading causes of workplace injury. Same-level falls are debilitating, expensive, and, most important, largely preventable.

The opportunities for workplace STFs are too numerous to mention. Slippery walking and working surfaces, leaks, debris left in walkways, uneven floors, protruding nails, bunched floor mats, and uneven step risers are among dozens of dangers.

OSHA says STF injuries account for the majority of general industry accidents. They cause back injuries, sprains and strains, contusions, and fractures—and they result in 15 percent of all accidental deaths.

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Take the Right Steps

To ensure that you’re doing all you should to keep your people on their feet, take these and other steps :

• If you have wet or oily processes, maintain drainage and provide false floors, platforms, nonsolid mats, or other dry places where possible.
• Use nonskid waxes and grit-coated surfaces in slippery areas.
• Require slip-resistant footwear.
• Clean up spills immediately.
• Use smart housekeeping strategies, such as cleaning one side of a walkway at a time.
• Provide floor plugs so that power cords do not run across pathways.
• Keep aisles and passageways clear at all times.
• Reinstall or stretch carpets that bulge or have become bunched.
• Provide good lighting for all halls and stairwells, especially at night.
• Provide proper handrails and slip-resistant stair treads.
• Train workers to use handrails, avoid undue speed, and maintain a clear view of the stairs ahead of them.

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Awareness and Participation

Of course, effective STF programs—like all safety programs—must always be accompanied by strong employee awareness and participation. For example, BJF Healthcare of St. Louis started to see the benefits of its STF efforts once it found ways to get employees to become active participants.

To encourage participation, BJF ran a “Get a Grip on Your Slips” campaign during which employees called a hotline to report what they did to prevent themselves or a co-worker from falling. By calling the hotline, employees were entered into a drawing for a prize. Another cleverly named initiative was “Save Yourself a Trip.” This program also motivated employees to come up with antitrip and fall strategies and to share them with co-workers.

Consider the Risks

Not taking action against STFs is simply not an option. Consider the risks:

• Annually, some 21,000 Americans die as a result of falls. That’s more than from electrocution, drowning, and firearms incidents combined.
• Falls carry an astronomical price tag of between $60 billion and $80 billion each year that includes litigation, insurance and workers’ comp claims, medical costs, and other indirect costs.
• Falls are the leading cause of emergency room visits, with more than 2 million Americans entering the ER each year as a result.
• Falls are the number one cause of accidental death among the elderly and are the leading cause of nursing home admissions.
• Every hour, falls are responsible for one death and 183 ER visits.

Tomorrow, we continue the discussion of workplace slips, trips, and falls with a look at an ANSI flooring standard that can help prevent same-level falls and keep workers on their feet and injury-free.

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