To help employers reduce and ultimately eliminate slips, trips and falls that continue to occur in workplaces, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), recently announced the availability of a compendium including slip, trip, and fall prevention standards and a technical report from their catalogs.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), floors, walkways and ground surfaces were the source of injury and illness for 18% of all days away from work cases in 2006. Also, in 2006, 770 workers died due to falls, a 5% increase since 2005. Slip, trip, and loss of balance injuries without falls accounted for 35,440 non-fatal injuries and falls on the same level accounted for 151,750 non-fatal injuries in 2006.
The compendium includes: “Safety Requirements for Workplace Walking/Working Surfaces and Their Access,” (ANSI/ASSE A1264.1-2007); “Standard for the Provision of Slip Resistance on Walking/Working Surfaces,” (ANSI/ASSE A1264.2-2006); “Technical Report for Using Variable Angle Tribometers (VAT) for Measurement of the Slip Resistance of Walkway Surfaces,” (ANSI/ASSE TR-A1264.3-2007); “Safety Requirements for Temporary Roof and Floor Holes, Wall Openings, Stairways and Other Unprotected Edges in Construction and Demolition Operations,” (ANSI/ASSE A10.18-2007); “Standard Practices for Safe Walking Surfaces,” (ASTM F1637-07); “Standard Guide for Composing Walkway Surface Evaluation and Incident Report Forms for Slips, Stumbles, Trips and Falls,” (ASTM F1694-96, R2004); “Standard Guide for Ranking Footwear Bottom Materials on Contaminated Walkway Surfaces According to Slip Resistance Test Results,” (ASTM F1240-01); “Standard Guide for Selection of Certain Walkway Surfaces When Considering Footwear Traction,” (ASTM F802-83, R2003); as well as ANSI/ASSE A1264.1-1955 (R2002), ANSI/ASSE A1264.2-2001 and ANSI A10.18-1996 standards as historic documents.
ASSE and ASTM note that the standards included in the compendium are effective as standalone documents, their intent is to provide employers with a comprehensive package addressing the issue of slips, trips and falls in the workplace.
For more information on the compendium visit this link.
