Every year, more than 20,000 people die as a result of slip-and-fall accidents. Accidental falls are the leading cause of emergency room visits. Falls are the leading cause of death for those over the age of 85.

Scary stats, especially with the burgeoning Baby Boomer population getting to retirement age. But the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) is looking to reverse the tide, starting with the creation of standards that, for the first time, measure the slip risk of floors and of products used on floors.

Half of all slips, trips and falls can be attributed to the condition of flooring, according to the NFSI. Some of those falls are due to the flooring materials themselves — and with flooring trends popularizing the "wet floor" look, found with high-gloss floors such as marble, not only are surfaces potentially offering less traction, but they are masking wet spots as well. Falls are also due to the condition of the floor, which could refer to environmental wear and tear, residue from cleaning chemicals or other substances, and wet conditions.

Some 80 percent of slip-and-fall claims occur when a floor is wet or otherwise contaminated, says Russ Kendzior, president of Southlake, Texas-based NFSI. Years ago, NFSI was recognized as a standards developer by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and has since been working on a number of ANSI standards that pertain to safety requirements for slip, trip and fall prevention.

Measuring Risk

ANSI B101.1 was released in November and is the first national floor safety standard that measures slip and fall risk.

"It's all about prevention of slips, trips and falls," Kendzior says. "Prior to the NFSI offering standards, there never were floor safety standards in this country. In other words, manufacturers can produce any product they want, test it any way they want, generate whatever numbers they generate, and claim whatever performance characteristics they want. It was what I referred to as the Wild Wild West of safety."

The concern for worker and occupant safety is at an all-time high. As exemplified by green cleaning products, cleaning for health procedures, and machines manufactured to improve indoor air quality or with ergonomic design to reduce user strain, a priority for the industry as a whole is to "do no harm."

Pedestrian liability is one of those safety issues that has the power to keep a building service contractor up at night. No BSC wants to be even partially responsible for a slip, trip or fall on a floor surface at a facility they're responsible for cleaning — or a subsequent workers' compensation claim or lawsuit.

Before ANSI B101.1 was published, there was no real definitive standard regarding the level of traction on a floor surface, says Steve Spencer, B101.1 subcommittee chairman and facilities specialist for State Farm Insurance Co. in Bloomington, Ill.

"Basically, it's a way to educate the public as to what constitutes a high-traction floor and a low-traction floor, and let them make the decision," Spencer says.

The standard identifies test methods for measuring traction on hard floor types such as wood, vinyl, ceramic tile, laminate and concrete, not including mechanically polished tile such as porcelain or marble. These methods can be used in the laboratory and the field, and determine wet static coefficient of friction, or the risk of slipping when starting walking from a dead stop on a wet floor. Foreign standards typically use "dynamic," or continuous walking on a floor, to measure friction coefficients — but moderate and high traction static measurements are comparable, Spencer adds.

"We actually correlated a level of slip resistance to how many people would slip and fall and file a claim," Kendzior says.

The standard splits traction into three ranges: high, moderate and low. In NFSI's clinical studies, the highest level of traction is found in floors that measure a wet static coefficient of friction at 0.6 or greater.

"It revealed a 90 percent reduction in slip and fall claims," Kendzior says. "Bottom line: if you're keeping your floors at a 0.6 value when wet or higher, you're going to see fewer people slip and fall."

B101.1 is the cornerstone of eight other standards in the works, which will all refer back to it, Spencer says.

BSCs can now work with their customers to determine whether flooring in buildings serviced should be tested for risk — and thanks to a related standard due for release this year, contractors will be able to tailor floor cleaning programs to help reduce risk of slips, trips and falls.

The next standard to be published will be B101.5, which will serve as a guideline for uniform product labeling to identify traction of floor coverings, coatings, cleaners and other treatments.

Traction Safety Labels

B101.5 will use the values from B101.1 in labeling products. The label will resemble a gas gauge, with the three traction ranges identified by colors: green, yellow and red (similar to a stoplight). Those with a value of 0.6 or greater will be in the green zone, those between 0.4 and 0.6 will be in the yellow zone and those below 0.4 will be in the red zone, indicating minimal available traction.

As a third-party certifier, NFSI has been testing cleaning products for traction safety for years. Even though the testing and subsequent labeling is voluntary for manufacturers, a few major home improvement stores will require cleaning products sold in their stores to have the B101.5 label, Kendzior says. Awareness at the consumer level could garner attention from commercial customers, he adds.

Of course, no manufacturer wants its products to be in the red zone, he says, so these standards should motivate them to improve products and develop new ones that contribute to high traction. The standard is not meant to judge whether a product is good or bad, or safe or unsafe, he says. It simply sets forth three risk categories of slip resistance — which is just one element that contributes to slips and falls.

"What we're going to see, which is a long time coming, is the elevation of floor care to floor safety," Kendzior says. "No longer is it OK just to have a clean shiny floor to satisfy the end users. They now will require an additional performance characteristic: slip resistance."

ANSI B101.5 should be published later this year.

Legal and Financial Ramifications

BSCs have a lot at stake pertaining to floor safety standards. In a world that continues to become more litigious, slip and fall claims are increasingly including cleaning staff and cleaning companies as defendants. From a legal standpoint, a BSC can't afford not to become educated about them. They need to know what cleaners should be used on what floor surfaces, are applied with what type of mops or machines, and leave what kind of residue, Spencer says.

"What products are they using and what does it do to the safety of the floor? Does it increase the traction, does it decrease the traction, or does it just clean and leave the traction where it needs to be?" Spencer says.

Insurance rates may also be affected by the standards, with Kendzior comparing it to health insurance: "If you have a pre-existing condition, you're going to pay more. The insurance industry's simply going to charge you more money. So property owners, BSCs that really engage in this process to elevate floor safety, they will see savings."

Beyond liability concerns, the standards also provide BSCs an opportunity to use their knowledge of and adherence to them as a selling point. It's a way to differentiate service and to build relationships with customers by educating them about how contractors can work with them to develop floor care programs that help protect everyone's interests.

"A good qualified program, using proper products — not only selections of the floor covering but also the products they use to clean and enhance that floor — and then regular testing, goes a long way toward eliminating a lawsuit," Spencer says. "And right now, the average lawsuit award is more than $50,000 a case."

Kendzior considers the floor safety movement as significant as the green movement, as it affects many industries and all pedestrians in public and private buildings. NFSI is working on other B101 floor safety standards, including those dealing with flooring next to pools and spas, matting, lab measurement for footwear and a safety management program standard.

Falls can land people in the hospital, a nursing home or even a grave, so anything that can be done to reduce the number of slips, trips and falls is truly for the greater good, Kendzior says.

As long as there's gravity, people will fall, he adds, but BSCs can safeguard their floors' performance by adhering to the standard.

"And that's really what this milestone, this ANSI B101.1 standard, is all about," Kendzior says.




POSTED ON: 4/2/2010