When trying to reduce trip hazards, a paradigm shift is needed. It is believed that personal awareness is necessary for prevention, but this does not take into account that walking is an automatic function for humans. Next, we look to shoes, but discount the fact that soles wear out. When it comes to signs, they may help when new, but they quickly become invisible. Preventing slips and falls should be easy, but we need to be willing to dig deeper to find the real cause of slips and falls.

Key Takeaways:

• Look to shoes first for preventing slip injuries. Author states that the paradigm of thinking that the shoes are the main culprit of slips and falls isn’t necessarily always true.
• Using signage is an effective prevention strategy. Signage doesn’t remove the hazard, but using highly visible cues can aid in avoiding the hazard.
• Deal with the cause of the problem first, that way you don’t have to deal with a bigger problem later.

“This should be our wake-up call to discard these commonly held paradigms that have for years impeded our effectiveness as safety people to actually prevent slip-and-trip injuries.”

Read more here:
http://www.ehstoday.com/ppe/discarding-paradigms-limit-our-ability-prevent-slip-trip-and-fall-injuries