Why it’s important
Fall injuries are one common occupational injury.
The construction industry experiences the highest frequency of fall-related deaths. These deaths are mostly falls from heights.
The highest number of non-fatal fall injuries are in the education and health care and health care and social assistance industries. These injuries are mostly slips and falls on the same level.
Other industries with a high risk of fall injuries include:
- Nursing care and housing
- Ambulance services
- Cleaning and maintenance of buildings
- Transport and material handling
Influences
Fall injuries create a significant financial burden. In the United States, workers’ compensation and medical expenses associated with workplace falls are estimated to cost $70 billion annually.3
Other countries face similar challenges in the workplace. Indeed, the international public health community has a strong interest in developing strategies to reduce fall injuries.
Security risks
Falls in the workplace often involve:
- Unprotected edges
- Unsecurely placed ladders
- Misused fall protection
- Water, grease and other contaminants on the floor
- Clutter and tripping hazards in footbridges
- 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 culture across many industries define ongoing fall injuries each year.
Reducing fall injuries and deaths requires:
- Implementation of new effective fall prevention and protection technologies
- Use appropriate PPE such as harnesses, parachutes and non-slip footwear4
- Improving occupational safety culture by educating the workforce
These efforts require continued cooperation from:
- Regulators
- Industry leaders
- Professional associations
- Trade unions
- Employers and employees
- Security professionals
- Researchers
What the CDC is 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 on fall injury prevention research on:
- The magnitude or occurrence of the problem as shown by the data
- Immediacy of need
- Resources and expertise available to work on the problem
- Current research
- Strength of partnerships
- Status and progress on research-to-practice efforts
Input from the National Academy of Sciences program review improves the strategic planning process.
Resources
Reports on Fatality and Control Evaluation (FACE).
Review falls-related NIOSH FACE and State FACE reports for recommendations to prevent similar deaths in CDC stacks. Search by collection (NIOSH/FACE) or search for reports using keywords in the search bar.
