TRUSTY-STEP NO.1001 ANTI-SLIP TREATMENT FOR FLOORS AND BATHTUBS
Slip and fall accidents are second only to car accidents in accidental death. Trusty-Step No.1001 application can reduce those numbers.
The home itself offers many types of slip and fall hazards. Probably the number one concern in the home is the bathroom. Many bathrooms have ceramic tile floors or even marble, granite, or travertine tile floors. These floors are beautiful to look at and much easier to keep clean but they create a slippery situation when they get wet.
Porcelain bathtubs can be treated to make them slip resistant and there will be no visible difference in the bathtub.
The bathtub can be a hazard where thousands of accidents have happened.
UNDERSTANDING COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION
Coefficient of friction (COF) is a mathematical term used to describe the effect of dragging one substance (shoe sole material) over another (flooring surface).
This coefficient is a measurement of the relative ability of various surfaces to resist the sliding or slipping of the selected material.
The slip-resistance of ceramic tile in ordinary applications is comparable to that of most hard surface flooring materials and it is significantly better than some.
Unglazed tiles have a greater slip-resistance than glazed tiles and are commonly recommended for areas subjected to high water spillage. irregular or textured surfaces can be confused for slip-resistant surfaces. Because a glazed tile is rough or not glossy, doesn’t necessarily mean it is slip-resistant. Even many irregular or textured unglazed tiles can become slippery when wet, allowing surface hydroplaning.
Many glazed and unglazed tiles can feature abrasive grit on their surface, increasing their slip resistance substantially. These tiles are commonly installed in public areas with direct access to the outdoors. Corundum grit surfaces can introduce an element, when traffic acts upon the surface, which will add to the floors deterioration and can be too slip-resistant, when excessive.
Carborundum grit, which appears to be black reflective speckles into the surface of an unglazed tile, will wear flat and become ineffective.
Please Note: that any tile or other hard surface flooring can become slippery when wet or improperly maintained. Slip resistance varies with the many types of footwear, soiling, and cleaning regimen.
Polished wet surfaces give false slip-resistance readings, due to a suction effect developing between the tile surface and sole materials.
Even under dry conditions the testing of polished surfaces is questionable.
Avoid trying to raise the COF by using coatings – they will peel, blister, discolour and mar, creating a difficult floor surface to maintain…aside from providing unsatisfactory slip-resistance.
The USA Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) currently recommends that the static COF be at least 0.5 for all walkway surfaces under both wet and dry conditions. The Americans Disabilities Act (ADA) recommends the dry static COF of 0.6 on any flat or horizontal surfaces both wet and dry, but 0.8 for any inclined or ramp areas.
COF is defined as the friction force opposing sliding motion divided by the force normal to the surface.
People walk differently (most people demand a consistent COF of between 0.25 – 0.3 walking normally) Long fast strides demand a higher friction. Although slippery surfaces or steep slopes provide low COF, we often perceive the potentially dangerous floor, shorten our stride and walk slowly.
Including the presence of contaminants a 0.4 COF should be demanded for safety.
Millions of combinations possible: several shoe materials & design features, floor materials, surface profiles, degrees of wear and cleanliness, type & amount of contamination, walk patterns & angle of contact, body weight, vertical force, rate of weight application, lighting & surface perception, eyesight, inebriation, medication, etc.
It’s important to realize that the COF testing is flawed. The current testing methods, both in the testing laboratory and in the field, are flawed. In addition, there are so many other factors and shoe materials used in real pedestrian traffic conditions that the results are inconclusive at confirming how a surface or tile will provide adequate slip-resistance; especially, once down and subjected to periods of differing wear abrasion and daily maintenance regimens.
The best solution, the best objective, is to provide a superior COF and maximize these characteristics for industrial, commercial, and residential needs.
- Over 540,000 slip and fall injuries, requiring hospital care, occur in North America each year.
- Slip and falls account for over 300,000 disabling injuries per year in North America.
- One in three serious bone breaks for seniors result in death, within one year of the accident.
- Slip and falls account for over 20,000 fatalities per year in North America – i.e. 55 persons per day.
- It is the second leading cause of accidental death and disability after automobile accidents.
- Slips and falls kill more workers than all other combined forms of workplace accidents.
- Slip and falls are the number one cause of accidents in Hotels, Restaurants and Public Buildings; 70% occur on flat and level surfaces.
- Slips and falls are the leading cause of death in the workplace and the source of more than 57% of all disabling injuries.
- Slip and fall accidents account for 30% of all reported injuries.
- Two out of three fall deaths occur in the home and our elderly are primary victims. 66% of injury cases for people 65 years or older were a result of a fall and over 75% of slip and fall deaths occur to people 65 years of age or older.
- 55% of persons over 40 years have sustained at least one debilitating injury, due to a slip and fall incident.
- There are estimated to be 8 million slip and fall accidents per year in North America. Falls make up nearly half of ALL home accidents.
- There are estimated to be 104 million lost workdays per year – i.e. 65% of all lost man-hours. That’s over 4000 lifetimes.
- There are social burdens related to this problem, including Worker’s Compensation claims over $1.8 Billion per year – i.e. 40% of all accident claims paid out. Worker’s Compensation and Liability Insurance Rates are increasing on the average of 30% per year.
Statistic Sources:National Safety Council, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), ADA, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Workers Compensation Board, CMHC, American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), Canadian Injury Prevention Foundation, Health Canada, B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit, Smart Risk, International Sanitary Supply Assoc. (ISSA).
The focus should be on prevention, not compensation:
TRUSTY-STEP MARKET POTENTIAL
Within each category there are numerous Trusty-Step® potential customers:
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