Be serious about that!
What is our first reaction when someone is falling down? Most of the time, we laugh. And the person who falls down feels often ridiculous, or clumsy. It’s difficult to consider that these kinds of situations are due to a lack of safety at the workplace. This hazard is often accepted, and most of the time minimized. The causes are diffuse and linked to a multiplicity of factors.
Over a third of major injuries reported each year are caused as a result of a slip or trip.
Direct and indirect costs can be quite high. In UK, an estimation of over £512 million a year for the employers was communicated.
What are we talking about? We are talking about accidents firstly due to interaction in between the foot of the worker and a support, causing a loss of balance, during a work that can be done at floor level or at height. Consequences can be contusions, pains, lumbagos, sprains, wounds, fractures, multiple lesions, or even death.
What are the causes? Falls are due to contaminated floors or floors that have not been fitted, bad adherence of shoes, working organization (movements, time to do the task…) and workplace organization (clutter, obstructions, unsecured passages, stairs…), and specifically poor lighting.
Two main events :
• Slips: they occur when frictions or adherence between the sole and the floor is too low. Generally, it occurs when surfaces are wet or oily, when there are accidental pouring, when carpets or other groundsheets are bad fitted, when there are slopes, and when, on a same working floor, degrees of adherence are different.
• Trips: they occur when the foot bumps onto an obstacle and the worker loses his balance. Generally, it occurs with poor lighting or obstructed view or path, with a folded mats or trailing cables, or with changes of level.
Here are some suggested actions to work on prevention:
• Keep areas clear, remove rubbish
• Position equipment to avoid cables crossing pedestrian routes, use cable covers to securely fix to surface, restrict access to prevent contact ; consider use of cordless tools
• Ensure mats are securely fixed, without curling edges
• Improve lighting levels and placement of light fittings
• Assess the cause of slippery surfaces to treat accordingly, keeping them dry, or treated them chemically with appropriate cleaning methods
• Use floor markings, add high visible tread nosings, provide hand rails
Adapted footwear is also important for both slips and trips.
Notified Bodies test the slip resistance of safety, protective and occupational footwear. Performance in the slip resistance of the shoe is obtained using a DIN ramp coefficient of friction test : flooring / footwear / contamination. Now footwear holds new markings which are SRA/SRB/SRC, the last one being the most resistant to slips. Tests are static and dynamic. The assessment is done using ramp test on steel with water contamination, and further testing on quarry tile surface with glycerol contamination, a much more viscous contaminant than water.
Usually, softer soling materials offer greater slip resistance than harder soling materials, but soling pattern may also have an effect on performance. Soling materials can be rubber, vulcanized rubber, polyurethane and dual density PU, nitrile, TPU (thermo plastic urethane).
A shoe has to be adapted to the floor (smooth, loose, oily, wet, hot….), to the working environment (indoor, outdoor), to the duration of wear and to other kind of associated risks (crushing, puncture, chemical…)
How the foot functions, referred to as biomechanics, is a major determinant in the overall wellness of the worker. It’s easy to understand: an unstable foundation can produce problems in the entire building! Stress pressure on the joints can be quite high. Comfort, stability and balance can make a real difference to avoid tiredness, accidents (sprains, fractures) or long term diseases (Musculo-skeletal disorders).
When walking, our foot can be divided in 2 parts: propulsory and receptive. The keystone of the arch is located at the division point of these 2 skeletal systems. The pronation of the foot (normal, under or over) shows 3 main stations building slalom for weight transfer (S movement). One of the foot’s main functions is to absorb shocks. It does this through a complex process in which the arch flatters slightly.
When designing a shoe, all those elements are very important. Manufacturers have to understand where to bring flexibility in the sole, arch support, shock absorption. The technicity of the outsole and the midsole are very important to bring the highest safety and comfort as possible. (cf. picture of the Multiwalk sole in Delta Plus)
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Occupational hand dermatitis
Let’s take care of our best tool!
Hand is still the seat of one quarter of accidents at work. Dealing with occupational dermatitis, cement is one of the main hazards, and construction is the second sector exposed to hand diseases.
When we are just talking about local effects on skin, we can consider 4 main groups of products:
• Corrosive substances that can lead to burns
• Irritant substances that can lead to irritant contact dermatitis
• Sensitizing substances that can lead to allergic contact dermatitis
• Substances that can cause other diseases such as urticaria, acne, skin cancer…
Examples from contruction
Bricklayers, tilers, concrete technician jobs…
1. Chemical burns: cement and mainly with quick drying (aggravation with cold weather and sweating by summer)
2. Irritant and abrasive dermatitis: cement; handling of blocks; washing hands with detergents or alkaline soap
3. Allergic contact dermatitis: contact with chrome in cement; epoxy resins in waterproof cements ; fluids and formwork oils
Painters
1. Irritant dermatitis: products for stripping; solvents and diluents
2. Allergic contact dermatitis such as eczema or urticaria due to dusts: glues and varnishes; conservatives and additives; pigments and colouring agents, metals
3. Traumatic tattooing: subcutaneous injection of high pressure paintings (can cause secondary ischemia on a finger that can result in amputation)
Real medical problem, and real victory of prevention
The cement represents the first cause of contact dermatitis. During an interview granted to the French cementary Industry, Professor Escande, the manager of dermato-venerology department at Tarnier Cochin Hospital, reminded us the success of actions of prevention, decreasing by 4 the number of dermatitis due to cement these last 25 years.
For a dermatologist, there are 2 main skin problems:
Irritant dermatitis appears when skin comes into contact with wet cement, which has been mixed. This mixture becomes alkaline and emits some heat. It’s a kind of burn. The skin becomes inflamed, very dry and itchy, with painful cracks, difficult to cure.
Bricklayer’s itch is an allergic reaction that appears as eczema.
Allergenic substances in cement can be:
• Hexavalent chromium
• Cobalt
• Nickel
Triggering or aggravating factors are:
• A frequent and prolonged contact
• Pre-agression of skin: alkaline PH, superficial wounds, lack of hygiene
Prevention is simple ! Good gestures at hand ….
• I wear gloves
• I use protective creams
• I have water available to wash my hands
Glove : which solution ?
The solution will be in the correct level of performance, and comfort for the wearer at the same time. That’s why it is very important to identify hazards and level of risk at the workplace, and to know the proper criteria for comfort at this specific workplace.
For instance, gloves in high-tech ranges can associate thinness, breathability and resistance of a knitted support (for more comfort and dexterity) to the protection of a synthetic coating for a higher performance.
Some examples :
Pouring concrete: jersey coton support or flocking / nitrile, neoprene or latex coating
Demolition, steel frame, stone cutting : knitted support in HTPE (Taeki type) or para-aramid (Kevlar type) / coating in nitrile, latex or PU
Brickwork or concrete masonry, laying of building materials : support in jersey cotton or polyester-cotton / coating in latex, PVC or nitrile
Handling bricks, breeze-blocks: support in jersey cotton, or polyamide knitting / coating in nitrile, latex or PU
