If your workers are slipping and tripping their way through the workday, it’s time to put your foot down and get serious with some high-profile slip, trip, and fall prevention training.
According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Safety and Health (CCOHS), more workplace falls involve same-level falls from slips and trips than falls from heights.
Workers may not die from slips and trips, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a serious safety concern—and not only for our neighbors to the north. Statistics show that year after year, a staggering number of U.S. workers end up on the sick list with injuries ranging from minor sprains and strains to more serious back injuries and broken bones, all caused by slips and trips.
Furthermore, slip, trip, and fall hazards are everywhere in the workplace. They’re not confined to production areas. Nobody in your workforce is immune from these kinds of accidents. Even office workers are at risk.
Why Slips Happen
CCOHS says that slips happen when there’s too little traction between an employee’s footwear and the walking surface. Common causes of slips include:
- Wet or oily surfaces due to processes and equipment
- Spills (even a few drops of coffee slopped on a smooth-surface floor are enough to cause a slip and fall)
- Weather-related hazards (for example, icy surfaces or surfaces littered with storm debris outside, as well as wet floors inside, when workers track water and snow in on their shoes)
- Loose, unanchored rugs or mats
- Flooring or other walking surfaces that don’t have same degree of traction in all areas (for example, going from a carpeted floor to a vinyl floor)
Why Trips Happen
Trips occur, says CCOHS, when a worker’s foot collides with an object or obstruction, causing the worker to lose his or her balance and fall. Common causes of trips include:
- Obstructed view (for example, a worker carrying a load he or she can’t see over)
- Poor lighting
- Clutter on the floor
- Wrinkled carpeting
- Uncovered cables or cords in walkways
- Bottom drawers left open
- Uneven walking surfaces such as steps or thresholds
Need to train employees to prevent slips, trips, and falls? Get both CBT interactive and PowerPoint® programs in BLR’s Total Training Resource: Slips, Trips & Falls. Try it at no cost. Click for details.
To prevent workplace slips, trips, and falls, CCOHS urges you to focus on three key areas: housekeeping, flooring, and footwear.
Housekeeping
CCOHS identifies housekeeping as the “first and most important” way to prevent workplace slips, trips, and falls. This includes simple, but highly effective, steps both you and your employees can take, such as:
- Cleaning all spills immediately
- Marking spills and wet areas when they can’t be dried up right away
- Mopping or sweeping debris from floors
- Removing obstacles from walkways and always keeping them free of clutter
- Securing (tacking, taping, etc.) mats, rugs, and carpets that do not lie flat
- Always closing file cabinet, desk, or storage drawers
- Covering cables that cross walkways
- Keeping working areas and walkways well lighted
- Replacing used light bulbs and faulty switches
“Without good housekeeping practices,” says CCOHS, “any other preventive measures such as installation of sophisticated flooring, specialty footwear, or training on techniques of walking and safe falling will never be fully effective.”
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Flooring
Changing or modifying walking surfaces is next on CCOHS’s slip, trip, and fall hit list. Here we’re talking about such things as:
- Recoating or replacing floors
- Providing slip-resistant mats
- Using pressure-sensitive abrasive strips or abrasive-filled paint-on coating
- Installing metal or synthetic decking
Footwear
Last, but not least, think about what employees wear on their feet and match required or recommended footwear with specific slip hazards. Says CCOHS: “In workplaces where floors may be oily or wet or where workers spend considerable time outdoors, prevention of fall accidents should focus on selecting proper footwear. Since there is no footwear with antislip properties for every condition, consultation with manufacturers is highly recommended.”
Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about preventing slips, trips, and falls, bringing in another international perspective—this time from Europe. We’ll also talk more about a training tool that can help you keep workers safe from slips, trips, and falls and your workplace injury-free.