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Slips and trips resulting in falls are the most common cause of major injuries in all workplaces in Great Britain and the second biggest cause of over-3-day injuries. Slips and trips occasionally lead directly to fatal accidents usually from head injuries. In the workplace and all public places the need to carry out risk assessments and then resolve identified problems has become an imperative.
Recent evidence suggests that slips are also indirectly responsible for many fatal accidents, as:
- Slips are often the 'first event' in falls from heights
- Simple slip injuries (broken bones etc) often lead to complications in older people, such as thromboses or embolisms, which may be fatal.
Slips and trips risks are especially important in factories and public places because:
- Injuries to workers and members of the public are frequent
- Trips account for almost 62% of major injuries to members of the public. Generally trips are believed to account for between 25% and 30% of all slips, trips and falls
- For example they cause 8% of fatalities to members of the public in the healthcare industry alone.
The National Audit Office, in their report of April 2003, 1 highlighted slips and trips as a main type of accident to workers and the public. The report includes recommendations that many organisations should review their health and safety risk management policies and improve their accident reporting systems.
Accidents can be cut dramatically through planning and positive management during refurbishment and new build, together with good housekeeping. Employees should be consulted at an early stage, as they will have useful experience of areas where problems arise. Accidents are not an inevitable part of life - they can and should be prevented.
Understanding how risks can be controlled
The four main causes of slips and trips accidents are:
- Slippery/wet surfaces - caused by water and other fluids
- Slippery surfaces caused by dry or dusty floor contamination
- Obstructions, both temporary and permanent
- Uneven surfaces and changes of level, such as unmarked ramps. Other causes include factors such as a poor level of lighting and external glare; human factors such as people rushing; running or carrying heavy/cumbersome items; the wearing of unsuitable footwear or the use of improper cleaning regimes. Studies have shown that carrying even a light load can effect gait patterns (how we walk) and increase the risk of falling, especially among older people. In areas where individuals are likely to be encumbered and therefore have a restricted view of the floor, consider particularly the anti-slip properties of the flooring material and strictly enforced rules on housekeeping.
Floor surfaces
The floor has to have an appropriate level of roughness - for smooth floors it is the 'micro-roughness' that matters. The environment, the footwear, and the task also have to be suitable.
The characteristics of floor surface materials, required to provide satisfactory slip resistance, were thought to be difficult to assess. However, research carried out by HSE at the Health and Safety Laboratory, in conjunction with the UK Slip Resistance Group and the British Standards Institution, has shown this is not the case. The slipperiness of flooring materials may be simply assessed by using commercially available scientific test methods:
- The 'Pendulum' coefficient of friction test (also known as the 'portable skid resistance tester', the 'British Pendulum', the 'TRRL Pendulum'). This is a reliable and accurate test, and has been adopted as the standard HSE test method for the assessment of slipperiness. However, the instrument requires an experienced operative both to use it and to interpret the results. It is also quite large, reducing its portability.
- Slipperiness may be simply assessed by measuring the surface micro-roughness of flooring materials. Many types of roughness test exist, but research has shown that measurement of the 'Rz' parameter (formerly known as 'Rz(DIN)' and 'Rtm') allows slipperiness to be predicted accurately. Rz is a measure of total surface roughness, calculated as the mean of several peak-to-valley measurements. This measure is simple, quick, and a good indicator of floor slip resistance. It has recently been shown that floor surface Rz roughness levels of at least 20 µm (e.g. 30 µm) are required to enhance the slip-resistance of hard floor materials, such as ceramics and concrete, in water-wet conditions.
Managing the control of slips and trips risks
What practical measures can be taken will vary in different situations. It will need the assessment of each situation, identify what factors cause slips and trips, and match practical control measures to these factors.
It will require management arrangements to identify and implement the necessary control measures for each situation. The five steps to achieve this are listed below:
- Plan overall arrangements to manage slips and trips risks. In most cases, the risks will justify setting these slips and trips arrangements out separately and specifically within the overall safety policy document. Assess the risks and identify what more is needed to be done. Get the commitment and support of others, especially senior management
- Organise so that staff know what to do: establish systems for inspection, maintenance, training and consultation with safety representatives
- Control the risks by taking the measures identified
- Record all incidents involving slips and trips and ensure appropriate injuries are reported to HSE as required by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
- Monitor achievements to ensure progress is made, e.g. from accident information, inspections, audits and reports from employees. Review the plan regularly.
Legal requirements
Although previous health and safety legislation had always required action against slips and trips risks, recent regulations have re-emphasised the importance of these measures and shown how to take them.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 (amended in 1999) specify the five steps required for effective risk control arrangements and employee duties, as well as training and consultation with safety representatives.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require the floor surface to be suitable by not being 'slippery so as to expose any person to a risk to their safety' and for the floor to have 'effective drainage'. Preventing contamination rather than increasing the slip resistance to counteract it is clearly preferable. However, very small levels of contamination (a single drop in many circumstances) can lead to drastic increases in slipperiness. Prevention of contamination must therefore be very thorough.
There are also duties on suppliers of equipment, floor treatment substances and slip-resistant shoes is a possibility to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the inherent safety of their products and to provide information to users.
The Workplace Regulations also require the floor construction to:
- Have no holes, or slope or be uneven so as to ... expose a person to a risk
- So far as reasonably practicable keep floors free of obstructions and from any article which may cause a person to trip
- Not have accumulated waste materials except in suitable receptacles
- Wherever possible fit anti-slip coatings to floors, stairs, ramps etc
There are now available anti-slip covers made from tough and durable fibre-glass which are coated with silicon carbide grit and have been specifically designed for easy installation. These materials are now manufactured in various styles and shapes such as stair nosing's that are now even produced in luminous material to conform with the recent Disability Discrimination Act.
Clarissa Snowsell
Product Manager
NON SLIP safety products
