No more slip-ups

Work-related slip, trip, and fall (STF) incidents can result in serious, disabling injuries that impact an employee’s ability to do his or her job. CLAIRE RENCKEN gets a grip on a few ways to prevent incidents such as these.

Irregularities on floor surfaces are among the leading causes of STF incidents. Damaged, warped, buckled, or uneven flooring surfaces in the workplace can cause employees to stumble, trip, slip, or fall. Wearing slip-resistant shoes is just one part of the solution. The other is slip-resistant flooring.

COBA Plastics, based in Cape Town, offers a wide range of industrial safety matting options. Many are designed to reduce the risk of slipping in the workplace, while also improving comfort underfoot.

Wet, oily or greasy floor surfaces are notoriously hazardous. COBA’s interlocking Fatigue Step Tiles, with open drainage holes, are a popular choice for these types of environments. Manufactured from soft, oil-resilient rubber, they also provide added comfort to relieve fatigue from standing.

Similarly, there is also the ultra-comfortable COBA Deluxe matting, which provides excellent slip resistance in wet and oily locations, and is made from hard-wearing, natural rubber, making it suitable for heavy-duty applications.

There are several other matting options in the COBA Plastics collection that have slip-resistant properties. These are available in rolls or tiles, or as work-station mats.

In addition to matting, COBA also has a range of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) sheets, treads and stair nosing, which makes up its COBAGRiP collection. The silicon carbide “gritted” top surface of these products provides effective slip-resistance on floors and stairways. They can simply be bonded or screwed to the existing floor surface, and can be a cost-effective solution for floor refurbishment.

A selection of a “grit surfaced”, self-adhesive floor tape is also available from Coba to enhance floor safety.

To avoid lost workdays, reduced productivity and those expensive worker compensation claims, be sure to provide your employees with the necessary slip and fall protection.

MSA’s new fall-protection harness

Working at heights can also lead to falls. Earlier this year, the African division of MSA launched a new fall-protection harness, which is designed specifically for emergency situations that require both respiratory and fall-protection equipment simultaneously.

MSA Africa sales and marketing director, Paul Gibbon, notes that the alphaFP SCBA fall protection harness can be swiftly and easily connected to any MSA SCBA back plate in confined space emergencies, in applications ranging from mining and construction, to painting and welding. “This unique product serves as a two-in-one solution for emergency situations,” he explains.

The alphaFP fall protection SCBA harness is highly versatile, and can be used for fall arrest, thanks to its solid stainless-steel rings that serve as attachment points for fall arrest lanyards. What’s more, D-rings on each side of the hip belt allow for safe positioning on an exposed work site, while the back D-ring can be used for safe rescue from confined spaces.

According to Gibbon, prolonged operations on a rope can be conducted in comfort, as the hip harness with both leg loops turns into a comfortable seat. “By virtue of its slide-through design, normal walking is unobstructed. The alphaFP fall protection harness offers the user the highest levels of safety in exposed situations, and is the ideal safety solution for height and shaft rescues, and also provides respiratory protection in tunnel operations.”

The harness has been designed with a front opening system that allows for fast and intuitive donning, even within the confines of a vehicle. “The MSA alphaFP has been designed for maximum user comfort, and boasts a sliding leg loop design that allows for freedom of walking. Two versions of the alphaFP harness are available in the local market, namely the alphaFP pro and the alphaFP basic, which both come in standard or large sizes,” he concludes.