Trips and falls safety

Occupational safety, sometimes referred to as personal or hard hat or trips and falls safety, is concerned primarily with the behavior and performance of individuals, operating either alone or in small groups. The discipline covers items such as vessel entry, tripping hazards, vehicle movement, the use of protective clothing, and lock-out/tag-out systems. It is what most members of the public think of when they hear the word safety. Occupational safety incidents occiu quite frequently (which is why it is possible build highly credible trend lines such as those shown in Figures 1.1 and 1.4), but their impact is generally limited to just a few people. 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Standard 29 CFR 1910.22, Walking-Working Surfaces, and ANSI A1264.2-2006, Standard for the Provision of the Slip Resistance on Walking/Working Surfaces, provide guidance on preventing slips, trips, and falls. Safety personnel must identify, evaluate, and correct any hazards that could contribute to these types of events. 

Workers involved in hazardous waste eleanup, handling hazardous materials or other hazardous substanees, faee a more serious safety and health risk than do most eonstruetion or manufaeturing operations. In addition to the typieal slips, trips, and falls found in other eonstruetion or manufaeturing operations, employees handling hazardous waste or ehemieals may eneounter a variety of other hazards ineluding fires, explosions, and health-related issues assoeiated with exposures to toxie substanees. 

The successes of the traditional approach have largely been obtained in the area of occupational safety, where statistical evidence is readily available concerning the incidence of injuries to individuals in areas such as tripping and falling accidents. Such accidents are amenable to behavior modification approaches because the behaviors that give rise to the accident are under the direct control of the individual and are easily predictable. In addition, the nature of the hazard is also usually predictable and hence the behavior required to avoid accidents can be specified explicitly. For example, entry to enclosed spaces, breaking-open process lines, and lifting heavy objects are known to be potentially hazardous activities for which safe methods of work... 

A review may uncover "common" minor safety hazards that are of the nature of slips, trips and falls. These may be noted and appropriate recommendations made, however the team should strive to avoid undue concentration on these events, as the objective of these reviews are to identify potential major process hazards. 

The first word is process. PSM is concerned with process issues such as fires and the release of toxic gases, as distinct from occupational safety issues, such as trips and falls. 

The assumption underpinning the incident pyramid is that the causes for all types of event are the same. In fact, this assumption is only partially correct because the root causes of minor events are different from those that lead to process safety events. Therefore, improving day-to-day safety will not necessarily reduce the number of serious incidents. Minor events are typically caused by occupational problems such as trips and falls, lack of proper PPE, and improper use of machinery. Major events, however, are more often caused by process safety problems such as incorrect instrument settings, corrosion, or mixing of incompatible chemicals. Hence a program that leads to improvements in occupational safety will not necessarily help reduce the frequency of process-related events. Indeed, improvements in the occupational safety record may induce a false sense of confidence regarding the potential for a major event. (It is probable, however, that a poor performance in occupational safety will correlate positively with a poor performance in process safety.)... 

Haslam, R. A. and T. A. Bentley. Follow-up Investigations of Slip, Trip and Fall Accidents Among Postal Deliveiy Workers. Safety Science, June 1999. 

Housekeeping is the routine care and cleaning that needs to be acted on daily in order for a facility to function safety and properly. In Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation 29 CFR 1910.38 (b) (3), it states that the employer shall control accumulations of flammable and combustible waste materials and residues so that they do not contribute to a fire emergency. Additionally, housekeeping procedures shall be included in the written fire prevention plan. Additionally, 29 CFR 1926.25 similarly states the need for housekeeping activities at construction locations. Common injuries due to poor housekeeping include slips, trips, and falls. 

Review facility historical accident and injury records to assist in identifying slip, trip, and fall hazards. Establish written housekeeping procedures and reqnire everyone including patient care staff to immediately report spills and other floor hazards. Incorporate slip, trip, and fall prevention education into recurring safety training. Conduct awareness campaigns to educate employees about the risk of slips, trips, and falls. Provide feedback on the actions taken to prevent slip, trip, and fall injuries. 

Slips, trips and falls aren t always our number one safety concern. After all, most of us have had our share of slips and stumbles — and they usually result in only a few scrapes or bruises (and maybe a little blow to the ego). 

We ve all heard someone say, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," or "It s not the fall that s so bad it s the sudden stop at the end." Many would-be practitioners in the safety field are often surprised, however, to find out that science plays a role in falls and that slips, trips, and falls actually involve three well-known laws of science ... 

McEwen, S. (2000). Slips, Trips and Falls on the Same Level. The Safety and Health Practitioner 18(9), 40-1. 

Safety Standard Those standards designed to protect employees from hazards such as slips, trips and falls, lacerations and amputation from using machinery, fire hazards, and so on. 

The Health and Safety Commission has been so concerned at the large number of such accidents that it has identified slips, trips and falls on the same level as a key risk area. The costs of slips, trips and falls on the same level are high to the injured employee (lost income and pain), the employer (direct and indirect costs including lost production) and to society as a whole in terms of health and social security costs. 

Outcome indicators Assess whether safety-related actions (pohcies, procedures, and practices) achieve their desired resnlts and whether they lead to less likelihood of an accident. They are reactive or lagging (based on historical data). Typically, they measnre change in safety performance over time or failures, such as number of shps, trips, and falls. 

There may even be new paradigms introduced about safety e.g., there was a vogue in the late 1990s for the rate of industrial safety accidents (i.e., accidents arising from sUps, trips and falls in the workplace) to be used by senior management as a surrogate key performance indicator (KPI) for the safety of a hazardous industrial process, i.e., the risk of a major process accident such as a fire or explosion. Clearly, these are two almost entirely different issues. 

Gielo-Perczak, K., W.S. Maynard, and A. Didomenico. Multidimensional aspects of slips, trips, and falls. In Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vbl 2. Edited by Robert Williges. Santa Monica, CA 2006. Goldenhar, L.M., and P.A. Schulte. 1999. Intervention research in occupational health and safety. Journal of... 

Physical hazards abound in the workplace. The mere fact that a company exists makes it prone to physical hazards — even the benign office has tripping and falling hazards. In an industrial setting, the huge variety of machines, processes, and equipment create a challenging set of hazards that a safety professional must deal with. 

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