Top 10 Ways of Stopping Slips-Falls
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BY GEORGE
SOTTER, P.E., PH.D.
As the average age of Americans increases, we become more
vulnerable to falling accidents. Hip fractures are the most
common of the fall-related fractures suffered by seniors; each
year, some 240,000 hip fractures occur among people older than
50 years.
Surgery costs alone exceed $65,000 per accident, and at least
half the victims hospitalized for hip fracture cannot return
home or live independently after the fracture. Those that can
have increased risk of falling again, and the Americans with
Disabilities Act ensures their right to safe conditions.
Property owners who are liable for a falling accident can have
huge claims that affect their profits and insurance premiums, or
even their insurability. There’s a high financial motivation to
prevent the accident, and a bonus is that due diligence on the
part of the property manager helps discourage fraudulent claims
as well as legitimate ones.
The following is a top-10 countdown of the most cost-effective
ways of stopping slip and fall accidents:
10. Post warnings when and where appropriate. This is the least
satisfactory
way of handling a potential hazard, and you should use it
preferably as a temporary solution while planning to implement a
permanent one. Warnings must be conspicuous and, to the extent
possible, use pictographs to be understandable to people who
aren’t
literate in English or Spanish. The preferred background color
is Safety Yellow. For an area (such as a wet floor) that
pedestrians can avoid, consider cordoning off the area. Signs
plus safety tape or safety yellow chains can do the job. 9. Your
floor care personnel should use solings appropriate to their
situation. With some solings, it’s difficult to avoid slipping
on a wet floor even if the floor is “slip-resistant.” Like bald
tires, tread-less, soft solings are treacherous on smooth wet,
soapy floors. Footwear designed for commercial kitchens can give
improved slip resistance even on wet, greasy floors. What’s
needed is treads with lots of squared-off edges.
8. Have floors tested for slip resistance periodically to verify
your good maintenance. A third-party test is most defensible,
but you can test internally using SlipAlert (missionist.com),
which mimics pendulum test results. Quarterly or annual tests
can document your due diligence before a claim occurs. Even a
clean, dry floor can be slippery to some shoes — regardless of
the price of the shoes. If the floor is slippery wet, you will
need to prove (a) it’s slip-resistant to reasonable footwear
when dry, and (b) you did everything feasible
to keep it clean and dry in use. Legally, the issue regarding
liability is not whether or not a slip occurred — it’s whether
your building management was negligent.
7. Make sure stairs comply with your local building code, and
that nosings are easy to see — even for a visually impaired
person. Stairs need to have very uniform rise and run, and
handrails that
are firmly mounted and easy to grip. Avoid having confusing
carpet patterns on stairs, or steps with appearance such that
it’s hard to tell where each step’s nose is. On hard surfaces,
abrasive tapes can help. Outdoor stairs must be slip-resistant
wet and should have stripes on each tread.
6. Specify appropriate slip resistance for new flooring. Select
the correct minimum slip resistance for the situation. Don’t
buy problems. Ceramic tile is very much an international
business, and most tile sold in the United States is made
overseas, with Italy and Spain being the biggest suppliers. Many
overseas manufacturers can supply their U.S. distributors with
variable-angle ramp test categories (also known as German
standard DIN 51130 test data) for their products. Domestic tile
manufacturers can also obtain ramp test data for their
products. The book, Stop Slip and Fall Accidents! gives
internationally-accepted slip resistance standards for some 150
situations: rest rooms, outdoor walkways, kitchens, pool decks,
etc.
For nearly two decades, U.S. flooring manufacturers used ASTM
Method C 1028 static coefficient of friction to assess dry and
wet slip resistance of flooring. The results were interpreted as
reflecting slip-fall safety. In 2006, ASTM re-ap-proved the test
method with changes. However, major changes are now indicated
in the interpretation of the test results. The method is shown
to be clearly not suitable to use in assessing whether floors are
safe.
The Ceramic Tile Institute of America (CTIOA) has filled the gap
left by this reinterpretation of the static test method.
Endorsement in 2001 by CTIOA of a slightly-modified ASTM
pendulum method, E 303, gives designers, building service
contractors and building owners a method of assessing flooring
slip resistance that is far more trustworthy than static test
methods.
The CTIOA endorsement (ctioa.org, Floor Safety Report #2) of
minor modifications to the ASTM pendulum method brings U.S.
practice in line with the United Kingdom, Australia, New
Zealand, Singapore, and many small countries (such as Dubai)
that follow British law. Britain has been using the pendulum
method successfully for flooring slip resistance since 1971.
5. Use mats and rugs in sensitive areas. Where spills of water
or other liquids from drinking fountains or from ice or beverage
vending machines are likely, absorbent mats or area rugs (with
slip-resistant backing) can help to confine spills and prevent
slips. Make sure the mats have beveled edges and are not
tripping hazards. At entrances where there’s flooring that’s
slippery when wet, provide enough length of matting to dry
solings while the wearers are walking. A length of five yards or
so may be needed. If you don’t have adequate entry mats and
there’s an accident, you may be in a very weak position.
4. Apply abrasive tapes or abrasive coatings. Abrasive tape can
improve the situation on stairs, but replace the tape if it
becomes loose, worn or torn. For abrasive coating of floors
that can’t be chemically treated, epoxy with alumina (aluminum
oxide) particles is often a good choice. (Silica sand is brittle
and can quickly lose the sharp points that improve wet
traction.) Make sure the grit size is appropriate for the
situation, that there’s enough abrasive, and that the
effectiveness of the abrasive is not masked by too thick a
coating on top of it. A competent, experienced contractor is a
must — this job is often botched.
3. Maintain surveillance of potentially slippery areas, and
clean up spills before anyone falls. Glossy flooring without
chemical treatment is almost always slippery when wet. Constant
or frequent surveillance is required, especially in places such
as a supermarket, where spills could occur at any time. When a
spill occurs, act immediately to make sure no one steps in it.
Then clean it up and make sure no one steps on the floor until
it’s dry.
2. Trap rain, mud and snow at the entrance. In warm weather,
place an abrasive mat outside and an absorptive mat inside. In
cold weather, put an absorptive mat just inside the door,
followed by an abrasive mat. When mats get dirty or saturated,
they must be exchanged for clean ones. Offer plastic bags at the
entrance for umbrella storage when it’s raining so people don’t
shake out water from their umbrellas far into the building.
Don’t forget, though, that their raincoats will still be
dripping.
1. Get non-abrasive chemical treatment for floors that are
slippery wet, and that may get wet or otherwise lubricated in
normal use. Select your contractor carefully, because inept
treatment can permanently damage the flooring. (This is not a
do-it-yourself project.) Cost of treating large areas is
typically $1–$3 scale. Wet slip resistance can be greatly
improved without significantly affecting peak-to-valley surface
roughness. Warranties are typically three to five years. Make
sure that the floor is tested at multiple locations immediately
after treatment, and periodically after that, using a method
endorsed by Ceramic Tile Institute of America (ctioa.org). The
test reports should be signed and stamped by a registered
professional engineer.
The CTIOA web site also lists recommended contractors. Using
these precautions, you can elimi nate the conditions that cause
most slips. Then we can all get on with the business of living
without the pain and suffering, disabilities, premature deaths,
and heavy financial losses that accompany these accidents. ❑
Dr. George Sotter is chair of Ceramic Tile Institute of
America’s Slip Resistance Committee. He is president of Safety
Direct America (www.SafetyDirectAmer-ica.com), contractors in
slip and fall prevention — including installation of transparent
polymeric Non-Slip 21 slip-resistant coating — and
investigation. |
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