A WALKTHROUGH ERGONOMIC CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING SLIP/FALL POTENTIAL IN LEAD ABATEMENT TASKS

The purpose of this study is to develop a tool to determine the ergonomic risk factors of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) and slips / fall potential associated with the lead abatement and lead risk assessors' tasks. For this purpose, an existing and validated checklist of ergonomic walkthrough surveys developed for carpentry tasks was enhanced with postural instability potential weighting for specific postures common at lead abatement sites and an additional section to obtain information on slip/fall risk factors. This paper discusses the slip/fall risk development for the enhanced checklist. Based on studies with industrial workers, the following risk factors have been rank-ordered according to the increasing risk of postural instability: task type, poor ambient lighting, elevated working surfaces (ladders or scaffolding), inclined working surfaces, and surface condition (slipperiness). Walkthrough surveys were conducted and laboratory data was collected to determine categories and ranking of slip/fall risk factors to be added to the modified ergonomic checklist