Be Proactive In By: Michael Fraley Prevention The ANSI B101.1 Standard can be an invaluable tool in impeding slip and fall incidents. Slip And Fall T Michael Fraley is president of Consolidated Safety Group Inc. (www.walkwaysafety.com). He is NFSI-certified as a Walkway Safety Auditor and a Slip and Fall Prevention Specialist. Fraley currently is serving on the NFSI/ANSI B101 Standards Committee and is chairman of the ANSI B101.4 Sub-Committee. His company offers nationwide walkway auditing services as well as customized floor safety pro-grams. They also offer a variety of safety enhancing cleaners and degreasers and products. You can contact Michael at 1-888-818-9038, at [email protected] or by visiting www.floortesting.com. The ever-changing pace of doing business is just a fact of doing business. Whether our business is cleaning, maintenance or manufacturing, we all have certain guidelines and issues that affect how we do our jobs. While some regulations are mandatory, others are put in place to protect our companies, employees and the public. And, while many standards and guidelines are set forth and may or may not be mandatory for a company to follow, the fact remains that these stan-dards should be viewed as a critical part of how a company protects its employees and customers. Often, what distinguishes a great company from a good company is how they view their employees and customers. If a company only views these key components as merely a number or statistic, they will more than likely show up on someoneʼs report as a sta-tistic at some point in time. The days of small or large companies ignoring problems — especially safety problems — is quickly fading as we see safety issues being addressed more often by insurance carriers, gov-ernment agencies such as the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the companies themselves. Just this year alone, OSHA has significantly increased their number of agents in an effort to enforce compliance. So, how does all this affect the cleaning indus-try and those responsible for the care of a facili-tyʼs floors? Slips and falls are continuing to be problematic for everyone. Whether youʼre the maintenance contractor, building owner or the manager of the facility, the fact remains that slips and falls occur on a regu-for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Floor Care . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select SUPPLIER SEARCH from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Safety . Failure to properly address situations lending themselves to slips and falls can turn your facility head over heels. 18 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • April 2010
CMM – Archives Apr 2010: 18
