The Benefits of Ice Cleats and Traction Indoors and Outdoors

Does your company deal with slip and fall injury reportables? If so, you're not alone.

Does your company deal with slip and fall injury reportables? If so, you’re not alone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019, slips, trips, and falls made up 32% of non-fatal work injuries and 28 lost workdays. At up to $48,000 per incident to employers, it can add up quickly.

The good news is there is a solution: winter traction aids, or “ice cleats”. Implementing traction devices to your safety program goes a long way to ensuring employee safety, preventing accidents, and helping your bottom line.

This winter, Arbill has partnered with the leader in the industrial traction aid space, SureWerx, to bring many great solutions to help reduce slip and fall injuries for our customers. SureWerx is home to the K1 Series and Due North traction aid brands. Between the two brands, SureWerx offers a traction aid solution for “any environment, any job function and any type of footwear”.

Ice cleats are available in many styles, from intrinsically safe to indoor/outdoor to transitional traction. Here are several models we will be offering this winter:

K1 Slim Profile’s rotatable design provides increased traction for both indoor and outdoor use and features ice-penetrating carbide studs that maximize your grip on ice and snow.

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The K1 Mid-Sole Intrinsic– Low Profile is a low-profile ice cleat that’s certified intrinsically safe to reduce the risk of sparking where combustible materials may be present.

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The universal K1 Mid-Sole High Profile ice-penetrating cleats maximize your grip while performing winter work.

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The DueNorth GripPro is a “spikeless” traction aid that gives the wearer traction on wet or icy surfaces both indoors, and outdoors. The traction comes from 22 fiberglass infused “chevrons”.

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All K1 Mid-Sole Cleats are designed to easily rotate to the top of the foot when driving, climbing or working indoors – ensuring that they can be worn throughout your daily operations.

Ice Cleats for Oil and Gas? Absolutely!

Due to the nature of the work performed, many large oil and gas companies in North America use ice cleats. As their attention is usually engaged with more demanding hazards, most oil and gas industry workers aren’t necessarily focused on slip, trip and fall hazards. However, a 2021 study from the U.S. Department of the Interior estimates that approximately 23 percent of worker injuries and 36 percent of fatalities in the oil and gas industry are due to slips, trips and falls¹.

Companies in the oil and gas industry require an additional layer of protection as they are working with combustible materials; that additional protection comes in the form of intrinsic certification. The K1 Mid-Sole Intrinsic line is the only line of third party, lab tested, certified intrinsically safe ice cleats in North America.

To understand how traction devices can save your company money, consider consulting a cost savings calculator that can factor in estimated savings based on your company’s average slip and fall injuries per year.

If you are interested in testing out some of the models above, please contact your Arbill Safety Advisor to arrange some samples for you.

Accident Prevention Signage

OSHA’s regulation 29 CFR 1910.145 lists design specifications and requirements for hazard signage. Each type of hazard has specific color designations established by ANSI (American National Standards Institute), as shown below:

DANGER

“DANGER: Indicates a hazardous situation that, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury. This signal word is to be limited to the most extreme situations.”

WARNING

“WARNING: Indicates a hazardous situation that, if not avoided, could result in death or serious injury.”

CAUTION

“CAUTION: Indicates a hazardous situation that, if not avoided, could result in minor or moderate injury.”

NOTICE

“NOTICE: Indicates information considered important but not hazard-related. The safety alert symbol shall not be used with this signal word. For environmental/facility signs, NOTICE is typically the choice of signal word for messages relating to property damage, security, sanitation, and housekeeping rules.”

SAFETY FIRST / EMERGENCY

“SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS or similar words: Indicates a type of safety sign, or a separate panel on a safety sign, where specific safety-related instructions or procedures are described. More definitive signal words are encouraged, where practical, (e.g. SAFE SHUTDOWN PROCEDURE, SAFETY OPERATING PROCEDURES, BOILER SHUTDOWN PROCEDURE, LOCKOUT PROCEDURE, EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN INSTRUCTIONS). The safety alert symbol shall not be used with this classification of signal word. This signal word may also be used as a heading for a safety instruction panel incorporated into a hazard alerting sign to convey lengthy instructional information. See Sections B3.3.6 and B7.”

USER DEFINED

Can be assigned as seen fit by the facility.