Slips, Trips & Falls | Increasing Safety In The Workplace With Dropped Object Prevention Equipment
Published 01 Mar 2024
Dropped Object Prevention Equipment
Preventing Slips, Trips & Falls in the Workplace
Safety is a top priority in any industrial setting, fatal work injuries at work up 6% in 2022 shows OSHA some of these could have been avoided implementing dropped object prevention equipment. Building an enduring safety culture can be the most cost-effective and proven accident prevention process in any organisation. Creating, promoting and internalising this culture is the most successful way to minimise costly injuries and maintain a safer, more productive and engaged workforce.
OSHA recently announced that in December 2023 the numbers of fatal occupational injuries by event in the USA for the year 2022. The fatal occupational injuries have increased by almost 6%, which is a significant increase on the year before. The highest number of fatalities at work are found in the transport industry and are often related to controlling a vehicle. The second highest fatal injury for 2022 is slip, trips and falls.
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Work-related fatalities due to falls, slips, and trips have increased 1.8% in 2022, resulting in 865 fatalities, up from 850 in 2021. Most fatalities 80.9% in this category were due to falls to lower levels, which had 700 fatalities in 2022.
This was a 2.9% increase from 680 fatalities in 2021.
Dropping objects highest risks for employees
Drilling down in the causes of these fatalities you find that: slips, trips and falls, also struck by falling object or equipment other than vehicle, is an high risk for employees and contractors. Both of these categories have fatalities resulting from dropping objects and falling from elevated work locations. The list further continues with the 3rd highest categories of fatalities in the industry with exposure to substance or environments.
A lot of these accidents can be prevented with decent housekeeping and well-designed work areas. Therefore special a focus should be on how to keep your workspace safe and clean. The walkways should be well prepared and suitable for work and designed with traffic segregation schemes. Safety standard ISO 14122 teaches that stairs, stepladders and guard-rails should be designed safely.
Adjustable Kick Plate installed to prevent objects from falling
The toe-board, or kickplates are designed as a solid lower part of a guard-rail. It is a upstand on a landing to prevent the fall of objects from a floor level. Toe boards is edge protection for the floor. It prevents that accidents happen when employees kick against a tool that slides off the edge to the work area.
The advantage for using toe board kick plates is that it prevents injuries and fatalities by reducing dropping objects.
Protecting work floors below with toe board kick plates
Guards, Gates & Netting
Guard-railings have openings, these openings in the guard-rail should be closed off and obstructed with safety gates to prevent persons from accidentally falling though an opening, or prevent persons from entering a hazardous area.
Self-closing safety gates are also called swing gates or just simply safety gates. A safety gate is part of the guard-rail is designed with a certified minimum strength and opens easily one-way, when you pass through the safety gate will automatically return to its closed position.
Safety gate, cable safety s-hooks and cable guards keep workspace tidy
Vertical posts and stanchions should be well marked and protected with padding when located in the walkway areas. Height differences in the walking level should be marked and the work environment should have sufficient lighting.
Overhead hanging structures should be designed with steel dropped object prevention safety nets, as secondary retention methods to support the brackets and basic structure.
Dropped object prevention safety net for secondary retention
Walkways must be safe to walk over at all times. Keeping the walkways safe and clean with no clutter does make a difference for a safe and pleasant work environment. Locations for temporary maintenance or installation work should be visible, well-marked and obstructed.
How do I make my work environment safe?
Be critical to work environment, ask yourself the following questions; are your walkways safe and clean to work? Designed in the right place? Being used? Are they available for employees to use? What tasks are performed on this walkway? Is the walkway good visible, are hazards on the walkway visible?
Simple tools are available for walkway clearing and walkway design, according to ISO / OSHA the safety standards in combination with safety tools can reduce these risks and prevent future accidents.
Review and apply safeguards specifically designed to prevent slips, trips and falls. Examples of these safeguards are cable safety hooks or s-hooks and cable guards, they ensure a neat and tidy work environment by removing all tripping hazards from the temporary work spot.
Dropped object prevention equipment and slip, trip and fall safeguards have a positive influence on creating a safe work environment. The bottom line is; it prevents fatal injuries and lost time incidents. These tools help reduce the highest safety risks in your organisation as stated by the OSHA.
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Dropped Object Prevention Equipment
Safety at work is of utmost important when working on elevated platforms especially if there are personnel or contractors working underneath. Dropped objects are still, unfortunately, a common contributor to severe accidents in industrial facilities across different sectors globally.
The accidental dropping of tools and equipment poses a very real risk to safety of workers operating at elevated heights. It is therefore important offshore development sites have systems in place to reduce the occurrence of such incidents.
Objects known to frequently cause accidents are hand tools or equipment left behind after a task. Also equipment mounted in an elevated location that has the potential to fall due to movement or environmental conditions.
CableSafe® offer a broad array of dropped item prevention tools to protect employees from potentially harmful injuries and accidents in a wide range of working environments within industrial facilities.
Reference & Information
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/
Additional information regarding guardrails, edge protection can be found at on OSHA’s rules on walking working surfaces and personal fall protection systems Guarding of Edges: www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1917/1917.112
Additional information regarding protection of stairs, stepladders and guard-rails, step ladders or landings, platforms and walkways safety of machinery can be found in the International Standardization Organization ISO14122 – Permanent means of access to machinery: www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso:14122:-3:ed-2:v1:en:fig:10
For additional safeguards information against dropped objects visit: www.preventdrops.com
For additional safeguards information against slips, trip and falls visit: www.cablesafe.com
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