Preventing Grocery Store Spills from Becoming Slips and Falls was prepared for client Kaivac.
Grocery store professionals know a spill can cause slip and fall acciden
ts. Very often, these are the result of breakable liquid items falling on the floor.
However, there are several ways moisture can also find its way onto grocery store floors, which can be just as dangerous.
Among the most common ways are the following:
- Leaking refrigeration equipment
- Melting snow and ice during the winter season
- Cranky children spilling drinks
- Moisture build-up from produce misters
- Water-line leaks to these misters.
Further, a spill can be costly.
The National Floor Safety Institute, which tracks slip and fall accidents in the U.S., reports the following:
- Slips account for over one million hospital emergency room visits each year
- Slips and falls are the primary cause of lost workdays
- Slips and falls are the leading cause of workers’ compensation claims
- Medical costs for employee slip and falls is more than $70 billion annually
- Legal fees defending against slip and fall claims cost an average of $50,000 per incident.
While we may not be able to prevent spills and moisture from getting on to grocery store floors, steps can be taken to clean them up quickly to help prevent accidents. These include:
- Place warning cones around the immediate spill area and as much as 10 feet from the incident, giving shoppers ample heads up
- Before picking up glass or debris, have staff wear work gloves designed to protect hands from broken glass
- Make sure workers do not wear dress shoes; many spills contain oils that can cause the soles of dress shoes to become very slippery
- Avoid using mops; mops spread oil, debris, and moisture to a larger floor area, increasing the chances for slips and falls to occur
- Select battery-powered alternatives to mops such as “dispense-and-vac” or “uni-vac” systems. These clean floors and then vacuum up the spill, soils, solution, debris, and moisture.
- Leave warning cones around the immediate spill area for 15 minutes to ensure the area is now clean and dry.
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Connect With Kaivac
About Kaivac, Inc.
Kaivac is the developer of the No-Touch Cleaning®, OmniFlex™ Crossover Cleaning systems, and supermarket cleaning systems. Headquartered in Hamilton, Ohio, Kaivac, Inc. delivers complete science-based cleaning systems designed to produce healthy results and outcomes while raising the value of cleaning operations and the professionalism of the worker. Kaivac offers an integrated portfolio of environmentally friendly cleaning products designed to remove the maximum amount of soil and potentially harmful biopollutants in the most cost-effective manner possible.
For more information, contact Kaivac Global Head Quarters at www.kaivac.com, email info@kaivac.com, or call 513-887-4600.
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