FACTS
- Wet and Contaminated Floors: Spilled liquids, grease, oil, and tracked-in moisture are among the most common floor hazards — a surface that looks clean may still be dangerously slippery after mopping, waxing, or chemical treatment.
- Cluttered Aisles: Stock carts, boxes, pallets, and loose cords left in walkways force workers into awkward movements around obstacles, increasing the risk of a misstep or contact with nearby machinery.
- Same-Level Falls: Workers do not need to fall from a height to suffer a serious injury. Slipping on a wet floor or tripping over an object regularly results in fractures, spinal injuries, and head trauma.
- Hidden Hazards: Poor lighting in storage areas, stairwells, and loading zones conceals spills and floor defects that would otherwise be easy to avoid. Housekeeping and lighting failures compound each other.
- Stacking and Storage Risk: Improperly stacked materials create two hazards at once — unstable loads that can fall onto workers and reduced aisle space that eliminates safe travel and exit paths.
- Spill Response Delays: A spill left unattended grows more dangerous with every passing minute, as other workers enter the area unaware of the condition.
- Egress Obstruction: Cluttered aisles and blocked exits are not just a daily trip hazard — in an emergency, they can prevent workers from evacuating quickly and safely.
STATS
- In 2024, 844 U.S. workers died in falls — 17 percent of all workplace deaths — and nearly 480,000 were injured badly enough to require days away from work, according to the National Safety Council.
- In 2024, 145 U.S. workers were killed in falls on the same level, incidents directly tied to floor conditions such as wet surfaces and clutter, according to the National Safety Council.
- Falls on the same level cost U.S. employers nearly $10 billion annually in medical expenses and lost wage claims, according to Liberty Mutual’s 2024 Workplace Safety Index.
- Uneven or wet surfaces are the leading cause of workplace slips, trips, and falls, contributing to 55 percent of these incidents, according to U.S. occupational injury data.
- In Canada, slips, trips, and falls account for approximately 20 percent of workplace injuries in British Columbia — around 7,000 workers annually from 2020 to 2024 — driven largely by wet floors and cluttered work areas, according to provincial WCB data.
- More than 40,000 Canadian workers are injured annually due to falls, with poor housekeeping practices identified as a primary contributing factor, according to Workplace Safety North.