Charlotte Fox, the first American woman to conquer three 26,000-foot or higher mountains and who miraculously survived a blizzard while descending after summiting Everest, has died at 61 after a fall on steep hardwood stairs at her Telluride, Colorado home. Her obituary was published by the New York Times on June 8. The Everest near-death […]
What’s the Cost of a Slip and Fall on a Commercial Property?
A recent article in Risk & Insurance (May 2018, p. 32) cites some data for costs of slip and fall claims. Claims can result in a sharp increase in insurance premiums. If the property is self-insured, costs can come directly off profit. Falls among adults are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury. Commercial […]
Tools Essential to Slip Resistance Testing
At Safety Direct America, not only do we specialize in expert floor and tile slip resistance testing both in the lab and in the field, we also offer the finest collection of slip test instruments to help you determine and monitor your slip risk effectively. National standards-setting organizations including ASTM, ANSI, BSI, ISO, and others […]
ASTM F2508 and the pendulum slip resistance tester
ASTM F2508 is based on a rigorous scientific study of 11 tribometers (or floor slip resistance test devices) that was held at the University of Southern California Medical Center. The peer-reviewed results were published in 2010 in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Four tiles were tested with the 11 slip test devices, and later a […]
Odd But Useful Places for Anti-Slip Coatings
Whether you own a home or a business, a swimming pool, or a warehouse, there are lots of locations where a good anti-slip coating can be applied. After all, no one likes trying to get off the floor after a serious fall. What you might not have considered, however, are all the odd but useful […]
Test Your New Pool Deck’s Slip Resistance BEFORE Opening the Pool!
It is amazing how often both large and small swimming pool decks are installed with no thought to wet slip resistance until falls, sometimes catastrophic, begin to happen. By the time the first serious slip injury happens, the flooring vendor has usually cashed his check and is unconcerned about the problem. Wet bare feet have […]
DCOF Rating for Floors
The latest American slip test for floors is the DCOF rating test method specified in ANSI A326.3. Although this test is a much better test than the now-withdrawn ASTM C1028 that was previously included in the International Building Code, the new test method comes with a great deal of “disclaimers”, including the warning that a […]
A Caveat about Dal-Tile’s Situation-Specific Minimum DCOF AcuTest Values
This blog has previously praised Dal-Tile for recognizing that “one size fits all” does not work when it comes to slip resistance standards (or bikinis, for that matter). For instance, Dal-Tile has recommended a minimum ANSI A137.1 DCOF AcuTest wet dynamic coefficient of friction of 0.60 for swimming pool decks, public showers, and locker rooms. […]
Cobblestones in San Juan PR: America’s Largest Slip Hazard?
As if San Juan and the rest of Puerto Rico didn’t have enough economic and hurricane-damage problems, some of the streets of San Juan are paved with blue 18th-century cobblestones that are very slippery when wet. In November 2017, a cruise passenger from the mainland USA fell and broke his arm (despite being warned about […]
Making Your Home Pool Safer
Swimming pools are an absolute blast! Every kid’s dream is to have a full pool in their own backyard. As fun as they are, though, pools can also be dangerous and scary without proper safety features put into place. We’ve all heard, too often, of tragic accidents that happen in home pools. Those stories make […]