Slips, trips and falls no laughing matter

The Health and Safety Executive is running it's Shattered Lives campaign through February and March focusing on slips, trips and falls in the workplace  - 2nd March 2008

Often a slip or trip at work is greeted with laughter, cheering or applause. For years people have been kept amused by comedy sketches depicting just such acts. But it is not always a laughing matter, every 25 minutes someone fractures or breaks a bone at work according to the latest figures issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Around a third of all serious injuries at work which are reported to the HSE are as a result of slips, trips and falls, and tragically there is on average one fatality a week from these types of accidents at work.

The HSE is launching it's 'Shattered Lives' campaign through February and March to try and highlight the possible outcomes of slips, trips and falls in the workplace, like lifetime disabilities or even worse fatalities, which not only affect the individual, but also those around them. It will highlight the need for all employees to deal with workplace hazards and not just leave them for someone else to sort out.

There are also possible costs to the business, with employees’ rights to sick pay at work, and reduced productivity through absence, so it is in the employers’ interests to take health and safety issues seriously.