Slips, Trips and Falls
Slips, trips and falls can occur in a wide range of different working environments. Falls due to slips and trips make up a significant percentage of employee injuries and no matter how much you try to address this issue, it seems to always slip back into your accident investigation file.

Causes of slips, trips and falls

According to OSHA, slips, trips and falls cause 15% of all accidental deaths, second only to motor vehicles. Slips commonly occur when there is a contaminant between the shoe and the floor. Trips occur when a person’s foot hits an obstacle in their path, causing a loss of balance. Often, the obstacle is not easily visible or noticed. Falls typically result from a combination of factors, so it’s important to carefully observe elements that might contribute to a fall.

• Footwear: Footwear plays an important role in reducing the risk of slips, trips and falls. Footwear should be suitable for the type of work and work environment, comfortable with an adequate non-slip sole, and checked regularly to ensure the tread is not worn away or clogged with contaminants.

• Obstacles: Trips most often occur because of uneven flooring or cluttered walkways with low obstacles which are not easily visible or noticed. Common examples of low obstacles include trailing cables, uneven edges to flooring, gratings or covers, loose mats or carpet tiles and changes of floor surface level.

• Cleaning: Cleaning affects everyone in the workplace. Besides regular cleaning programs, everyone has a role keeping the work area clear and taking responsibility for their own spills. Floors need to be cleaned properly to ensure that contaminants are effectively removed and a build up of cleaning product residue is avoided. Prompt attention to spills is important in order to prevent slips.

• Floor surfaces: Floor surfaces require sufficient grip to prevent slipping, especially in areas which may become wet or contaminated. The greater the thickness or viscosity of the contaminants, the greater the slip resistance of the flooring required to protect against slipping.

• Environment, including lighting: Poor lighting and distractions such as unfamiliar or unexpected loud noises, or extreme environmental conditions, such as extreme cold or heat, can impact a person noticing slip or trip hazards in their path. Adequate light levels without glare or shadowing are required to highlight potential slip or trip hazards.

• Contaminants: Contaminants can be considered as anything that ends up on a floor. Contaminants can be wet such as water, oil or grease, or dry such as dust, metal shavings, or plastic bags. Preventing floor contaminants is one of the best things you can do to prevent slips.

How to manage slips, trips and falls
The simplest way of preventing slip, trip and fall injuries in your workplace is to develop a risk management plan which identifies, assesses, controls and monitors safety hazards and risks. The following information will help you develop a risk management plan for your worksite.

• Identify hazards: Identifying hazards is the first step to determine exactly where slips, trips and falls can or have occurred in your workplace. You can find out this information by talking to workers and supervisors, inspecting the premises, and reviewing records such as incident and injury reports as well as workers’ compensation claims. Another useful method is to sketch a layout of the work area and mark on it where slip and trip incidents or hazards have been reported.

• Assess the risk: The next step is to assess the slip or trip risks. Usually it is a combination of factors that create the risk. As part of your assessment you should consider how many people are exposed, the consequences of the slip or trip – a slip or trip with or without a fall can be more serious if it occurs near hot, sharp or moving objects, or at a height, such as near stairs, and how often the situation occurs.

• Fix the problem: Look at the assessed risks and decide what needs to be done to eliminate or reduce the risks and how quickly these measures need to be implemented.

• Monitor and review controls: It is important to check whether the controls in place are effective, being used correctly, and have not introduced new hazards or risks. This can be done by talking with your workers, observing work activities, undertaking walk through surveys and reviewing incident and hazard reports.

Other things to consider
Other issues that you need to address in your risk management plan include design, maintenance, consultation, training and record keeping.

• Design: Prevention of slips, trips and falls starts with good design of the workplace. When refurbishing the workplace, incorporate features to prevent slips and trips. When purchasing new equipment, ensure it provides adequate containment of any possible by-product such as off-cuts, grease, and dust.

• Maintenance: This is fundamental to ensure that control measures remain effective. For slips and trips prevention:

• maintain the condition of floor and ground surfaces, stairs and ramps
• maintain machinery to prevent leaks
• ensure there is adequate lighting
• ensure workers wear suitable footwear to provide adequate grip.

• Consultation: Before changes are made to facilities and processes, or equipment is purchased, talk to workers in the work area about the changes.

• Training: All staff should have good understanding of slips, trips and falls hazards and how they can play their part in preventing them. For example, train staff in the risks and control strategies that have been implemented, including relevant procedures for cleaning and hazard reporting.

• Record keeping: Record all areas assessed and actions taken through the slips, trips and falls risk management worksheet, specifications of plant and work processes, incident reports and actions undertaken, maintenance records of equipment and tools, and records of training activities.

Taking time to create a risk management plan for slips, trips and falls prevention can help employers, managers, and supervisors lower the cost of doing business, reduce workers’ compensation costs, and retain a more stable workforce that delivers quality work with greater efficiency and productivity.

For information regarding PPH Corporate Health’s services please call: Duane Johnson 760.637.7665.