Why is it important?
Injuries from falls are a common work injury.
The construction industry experiences the highest frequency of fall-related deaths. These deaths are mostly due to falls from height.
The highest counts of non-fatal fall injuries are found in the educational and health services and health care and social assistance industries. These injuries are mostly slips and falls on the same level.
Other industries at high risk for fall injuries include:
- Nursing and residential care
- ambulance services
- Cleaning and maintenance of buildings.
- Transportation and movement of materials.
Impacts
Injuries from falls create a considerable financial burden. In the United States, medical and workers’ compensation expenses associated with workplace falls are estimated to cost $70 billion annually.3
Other countries face similar challenges in the workplace. In fact, the international public health community has a strong interest in developing strategies to reduce injuries from falls.
National campaign to prevent falls
Security risks
Falls in the workplace frequently involve:
- Unprotected edges
- Unsafely placed stairs
- Improperly used fall protection
- Water, grease and other contaminants in the soil.
- Clutter and tripping hazards in hallways
- Irregularities in floor and wall openings.
Prevention
Federal regulations and industry consensus standards provide specific measures and performance-based recommendations for fall prevention and protection. However, persistent unsafe practices and low safety cultures in many industries define consistent rates of fall injuries each year.
Reducing injury and death rates from falls requires:
- Implementation of new effective fall prevention and protection technologies
- Wear appropriate PPE, such as harnesses, fall protectors, and non-slip footwear.4
- Improve workplace safety culture through workforce education
These efforts require the continued collaboration of:
- Regulators
- Industry leaders
- Professional associations
- unions
- Employers and employees
- Security professionals
- Researchers
What is the CDC doing?
As a leader in occupational safety research, NIOSH plays a key role in these complex fall injury prevention efforts. NIOSH bases strategic planning and goal setting for fall injury prevention research on:
- The magnitude or occurrence of the problem as shown by the data.
- Immediacy of the need
- Resources and expertise available to work on the problem.
- Current research
- Strength of partnerships
- Status and momentum of efforts to put research into practice
Input from the National Academy of Sciences program review improves the strategic planning process.
Resources
Fatality Control and Assessment Assessment (FACE) Reports
Review fall-related NIOSH FACE and State FACE reports for recommendations to prevent similar deaths in CDC Batteries. View by collection (NIOSH/FACE) or search for reports using keywords in the search bar.
