How do we know if a flooring surface is slip resistant? And is it resistant in different situations? Slips, trips and falls account for a significant proportion of hospital stays. But we seem to accept this as inevitable. Lots of energy goes into educating older people and others to avoid falls, but the issue is much broader. A group of passionate people think we can improve the situation by developing and testing floor surfaces that minimise the risks. This diverse group came together in a conference earlier this year.
The Slips,Trips and Falls international conference brought together a diverse group of professionals all keen to prevent accidents. So they had everything from technical specifications to footwear. The proceedings have five main sections which are worth a browse:
– Design and technical standards in architectural design;
– Issues of slip resistance measurement;
– Ergonomics, rehabilitation, footwear and innovative products;
– Analysing accidents and the causes of falls; and
– Biomechanics, human behaviour and ageing.
It seems that Spain is ahead of the pack when it comes to testing and standards development. They demand a high level of compliance for slip resistance in the built environment. That transfers to Spanish flooring products. That means any flooring products sourced from Spain have been thoroughly tested.
Much of this conference is technical, but the bottom line is that we could prevent many falls and hospital stays if we had the same emphasis on ensuring products had good slip resistant properties. While the Livable Housing Design Guidelines promotes slip resistance, this is one area which is often ignored. The other concern is that technical standards are lacking in Australia for homes and the public environment.
A short video gives some of the key points from the conference. The link is on Richard Bowman’s page on ResearchGate. The video is subtitled due to the different languages spoken. A nicely filmed piece. Richard Bowman’s paper is also available on ResearchGate.