Shoes are a necessity. They have a very important purpose to serve in daily life: provide comfort to feet, while protecting them from outside elements, especially while working amidst hazardous working conditions.
And those flashy sports shoes or the casual pair of short or long boots can’t offer the required features.
Safety shoes
Safety shoes are specially designed to protect the wearer’s feet from all kinds of workplace hazards
'25% of disability applications worldwide are due to injured feet'. Safety shoes are specially designed to protect the wearer’s feet from all kinds of workplace hazards.
Available in different sizes and types, these shoes protect the worker’s feet from a broad spectrum of workplace hazards, varying in nature from greasy or wet floors that might cause a worker to slip and fall, to random gravel-stained paths and sharp objects, and from heavy falling objects, etc.
Protecting Worker's Feet in Different Scenarios
- Prevention from Slip, Trip, and Fall: Wet, greasy factor floors are very common, causing countless slip, trip, and fall accidents annually. Businesses can employ different measures to prevent such accidents, including implementing housekeeping measures, installing wet/greasy floor signs, or installing anti-slip floor tape. However, the chances of such accidents would remain high. Safety shoes with proper slip-resistant properties can reduce these mishaps to a large extent, including minimizing other fall and slip-related accidents like falling from a ladder, etc.
- Protection Against Falling & Flying Objects: Workers, especially in the construction or logging industry are at constant risk of incurring injuries from falling and flying objects, due to the dynamic work environment with machines, vehicles, and people operating at once. Safety shoes such as steel-toe boots (one with steel-toe caps) effectively prevent such injuries to the wearer’s feet, keeping them safe and protected.
- Protect from Punctures: At workplaces such as construction sites, workers are likely to step on sharp objects such as nails popping out of the surface, or be struck by sharp objects from above. These hazards can cause serious injuries, infection, or even death. Safety shoes made with heavy-duty soles, complemented by puncture-resistant insoles of different materials, provide optimum protection to the foot against such accidents
- Protection from Cutting Hazards: Workers from the logging industry or other industries where workers operate heavy machinery that is sharp or contains moving parts are always a risk of incurring cutting hazards. OSHO-approved safety shoes featuring cut-resistant properties can provide workers with protection against most cut-related accidents along with keeping their feet dry amidst wet working conditions.
- Protection from Electrical Hazards: Electric shocks kill more people than other workplace hazards. Mostly because workers associated with work that involve the risk of getting electrocuted, lack the required safety gear, especially the safety shoes. Workers without the required safety essentials could face potential electric shocks or accumulate static electricity. This can lead to electric sparks in certain environments. Safety shoes made with a non-conductive material such as leather or rubber, etc. can help prevent injuries or deaths due to electrical hazards.
- Fire and Cold Weather related Accidents: OSHA-approved safety shoes made with durable materials, can protect the wearer’s feet from other hazards such as fire burns, chemical splashes, molten metal splashes, frostbite, and hypothermia along with other unknown hazards.
Summing up, safety shoes are crucial to keeping the worker’s feet safe and protected. However, before users start to look around for suitable options, do remember to check with a PPE consultant or PPE manufacturer about the specifics of the worker’s requirement.
