The Role of Safety Footwear in Slipping Accidents
The Health & Safety Executive estimates that around 35％ of workplace slip accidents occur in sectors where the provision of safety footwear is the norm. Given the inclusion of slip resistance testing of footwear in the European Standard in 2007 (EN 20344, 20345 & 20346), it might be expected that the number of these accidents would start to fall. The test method used within the standard produces a coefficient of friction value for the footwear/floor/contaminant combination. The outcome of the test is presented as SRA, SRB or SRC, indicating that the footwear achieved a minimum friction requirement under specific conditions. Compared with the levels of friction that pedestrians are thought to require for normal gait, the minimum friction requirements defined in the Standard are considered by HSL to be too low. So, does the test provide the footwear buyer with an opportunity to select footwear that will reduce the slip risk in their workplace? Possibly, but only if they delve deeper into the standard and use the proposed Informative Annex to probe the footwear supplier for more information, such as the actual friction value achieved in the tests. Even then, they would need to compare the test conditions with their own work environment, and consider other requirements of the footwear such as toe protection, comfort, durability, etc. The good news is that some employers have identified effective footwear, and can demonstrate significant reductions in slip accidents.
Kevin Hallas Steve Thorpe Mark Liddle Mark Thomas
Health & Safety Laboratory, An Agency of the Health & Safety Executive,Harpur Hill, Buxton, SK17 9JN Health & Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge,London, SE1 9HS, UK
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-5
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）