Safety engineers warn of superstores’ dangers
Now, more than ever, people are flocking to home improvement warehouse superstores, often with their family in tow. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in Des Plaines, IL, recognizes that having customers in a warehouse store full of boxes, crates, and lift trucks can result in severe accidents, for instance from falling merchandise.
ASSE recommends that those retail organizations that have yet to develop and implement a comprehensive safety and training program to educate employees in customer and employee safety procedures begin as soon as possible. The organization also is providing retail safety tips.
"ASSE believes that a retailer’s duty to act is based on its responsibility to provide a safe environment for both employees and customers," says Samuel Gualardo, ASSE president. "It’s also important for consumers to heed all warnings and be aware of their surroundings."
Falling merchandise, forklift accidents, and lifting accidents are some of the hazards that can occur at a warehouse retail store to the customer and the employee alike. According to ASSE member and retail safety expert Terrence Grisim, CSP, CDS, CPSM, ARM, the following are some of the programs retailers have put in place to minimize such accidents:
• Have height policies for top stock. The particular height will depend on the type of shelving being used as well as the type of merchandise.
• Develop a procedure for store associates to walk down the store aisles several times a day to straighten up piles and correct any "leaners."
• Spotters should be used wherever forklifts are in use and any time stocking and/or retrieval activities are taking place and something can fall on a customer. It is recommended that the spotter keep customers away from hazards.
• Only do top-stock work when the store is closed or during hours of minimal customer traffic.
• Educate employees that nothing goes to top stock if it is not both stable and stackable and to be aware of the coefficient of friction in packaging. Explain to the purchasing department that boxes made of clay coat papers and those with large color pictures of the product can be substantially more slippery than the average cardboard box. Those are more dangerous and should not be in top stock.
• Any phase of safety, including the management of accidents, requires management attention — often, employees only do what they think management wants. One retail store chairman routinely meets with the regional vice presidents every Saturday on safety issues for both employees and customers.
It takes a team effort to deal with retail safety effectively, according to ASSE. It requires the coordination of risk management and information systems; customer safety programs; employee safety programs; thorough and constant employee training; and ongoing safety evaluation and training for all associates.
Additionally, according to Richard Lynch, PhD, CIH, a safety professional is the most qualified person to evaluate risk and protect the interest and well-being of both the retail establishment and the public. That can be achieved by evaluating back-injury risks, designing engineering and administrative systems to reduce those risks, and teaching employees and others about the risks.
Customers can experience back injuries when employees hand them large objects from a higher level that then must be lowered a long distance before they are level or resting on the floor. That awkward movement coupled with an awkward grip would be defined as poor if using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Manual Materials Handling Lifting Equation.
The ASSE urges retailers to exercise care and to adopt best practices in an effort to protect retail customers from back-injury risks.
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