Monthly Archives: July 2014

Sllip/Fall danger higher for the elderly

The Nano-Grip process eliminates the number one cause of falling among the elderly, slippery floors.Our invisible treatment creates a microscopic tread pattern on walking surfaces which actually makes them less slippery wet than dry.

Ensuring Slips and Falls Don’t Happen

The risk of death or serious injury from falls is higher among those above the age of 65. Ensuring slips and falls don’t happen is crucial to minimizing this risk.

Fall prevention is a vital area of geriatric care. The scope of a slip and fall prevention program in America is quite comprehensive. According to the latest statistics by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), one of three adults aged 65 or more falls every year, though less than half of those who fall actually discuss it with their healthcare provider. The number of nonfatal fall injuries in older adults was 2.3 million in 2010. The more worrying statistic though is that approximately 21,700 elderly adults died that year from unintentional falls.

The Elderly Fall More Often

When you’re young, you may fall while tripping over something or you don’t watch where you’re going. In adults, falling could be the result of an accident or a medical condition that causes loss of balance, weakness or vertigo. The elderly, on the other hand, fall more often and more easily. There are many reasons why older adults are more susceptible to falling:

– Loss of footing on wet or slippery ground or floor
– Tripping over uneven surfaces such as sidewalks, curbs, or floor elevations
– Slowing down of reflexes
– Loss of muscle mass
– Osteoporosis
– Diminished vision
– Medication which causes drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, disorientation, or slowed reflexes

So the risk of sprains, hip fractures and death is significantly higher in elderly people who have a greater tendency to fall.

Minimizing the Risk of Falls

It is therefore important to protect the elderly by minimizing these risks of falling. This is what slip and fall prevention programs are about – identifying the factors which could cause a fall, be it physical or environmental, and removing or avoiding them.

Multi-specialty healthcare centers offer comprehensive slip and fall prevention programs. With a team of experienced healthcare professionals in the fields of orthopedics, neurology, advanced diagnostics, geriatric care, pain management, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and other related fields, a detailed analysis is carried out to determine the elderly person’s risk of falling. A personalized treatment plan is then developed to improve strength, balance and walking speed and step length via specific exercise and training programs.

Removing Environmental Factors Causing Falls

The other major element of a slip and fall prevention program by a reputed healthcare center involves identifying and modifying the environmental factors in and around the home that could trigger falls such as slippery floors, hurdles in rooms or corridors, staircases and wobbly furniture.

One of the big advantages of the slip/fall prevention program at a reputed healthcare center is that it is designed to ensure that the elderly individual is able to maintain his/her independence while improving mobility. It enables the elderly to enjoy a better quality of life with lesser chances of falling.

Maintenance providers on the hook for slip/falls

 I found the following article by Patricia Vassallo in an industry publication which gives valuable insight into the liability which janitorial and floor care companies have if someone should be injured due to slipping on a floor which they maintain.
This risk can be greatly mitigated if the floor is treated using the Nano-Grip floor safety process. Our invisible treatment actually changes the floor surface on a microscopic level and renders it “safer wet than dry”.

A young woman enters the lobby of her office building holding her briefcase in one hand and a coffee in the other.

She takes eight steps across the lobby floor and slips and falls.

She breaks her arm, sprains her ankle and suffers a concussion.

Who is responsible for the floor that she slipped on?

Very often it is the maintenance contractors that are held responsible.

When a maintenance contractor signs a contract with a company, the contract typically includes language that specifically names the maintenance contractor as the party responsible for maintaining safe, hazard-free premises.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that slip and falls are the number one cause of accidents in hotels, restaurants and public buildings.

Over 70 percent of these incidents occur on flat and level surfaces, termed a same level fall.

According to data from Liberty Mutual, same level falls represented $8.61 billion in worker’s compensation costs in 2010.

A Growing, Avoidable Problem

The number of same level falls increased by 42.3 percent from 1998 to 2010, the largest increase of any accident type during that time.

The National Safety Council reported that compensation and medical costs associated with employee slip and fall accidents is approximately $70 billion annually.

With the latest technology, you can accurately measure the potential that someone will slip, trip or fall.

Industry standards were developed using the most advanced digital tribometer on the market.

This tribometer enables you to measure exposure and maintain safe walkway surfaces using the coefficient of friction (CoF).

This technology measures the slip resistance of hard walkway surfaces by dragging a rubber sensor to calculate the CoF.

With the release of the 2012 International Building Code (IBC) a dynamic coefficient of friction test, the ANSI A137.1 standard, was included.

At this time the standard is specific to ceramic tile (Tile Council of North America, TCNA) and natural stone floor manufacturers.

Hard surface flooring manufacturers are taking a serious stance with regard to floor safety and the liabilities associated with it.

By using this technology and developing these standards, they are protecting themselves.

This is the first time any U.S. National Building code or regulation has provided detailed instructions regarding wet dynamic slip resistance testing.

This standard requires the use of the BOT3000 tribometer and is sometimes called the ACUTest.

This means that the manufacturers are required to test their product before it leaves the plant.

Following Suit

The Concrete Polishers Association of America (CPAA) began the process of developing a similar standard, where their product is tested on-site after installation.

Similarly, with the release of the 2012 IBC and the development of ANSI standards, architects are requiring field testing after installation of all hard surface flooring.

These installers are required to provide dynamic coefficient of friction (DCoF) testing prior to occupancy.

By doing this, the architects, manufacturers and installers are protecting themselves.

As a result, the liability for floor safety is passed on to building owners and maintenance contractors.

And as mentioned previously, if the building owners outsource floor maintenance, they contractually pass all liability on to the maintenance contractor.

Therefore, when a same level fall occurs on a hard walkway surface, it is not the building owner that is ultimately responsible, but the maintenance service provider.

One Example

In one case, a New Orleans resident sued the supermarket chain Winn-Dixie Louisiana Inc. and its cleaning service, Southern Cleaning Services Inc., for injuries she sustained in a slip and fall accident (according to a suit filed in Orleans Parish District Court).

The suit named Winn Dixie Louisiana as liable “due to defective and unreasonably dangerous conditions on the premises” and that “Southern Cleaning Services Inc. is liable for allowing a defective condition to exist at a Winn-Dixie Louisiana Inc. store which it was contracted to clean and/or maintain.”

The National Safety Council reports that the majority of slip and fall accidents are caused by improper cleaning methods.

According to SlipSTD PAS, all wet cleaning methods should include a final rinse with clean water and a means of drying the surface before it is re-opened to traffic.

Failure to perform a final rinse with clean water can lead to a gradual buildup of concentrated contaminants and cleaning agents getting caught in floor surface ridges or asperities.

Contaminants in these ridges decrease the CoF.

Mitigating Risk

In order to mitigate the risk of slip and fall accidents, maintenance service providers must work with floor safety specialists who are trained to test hard surface flooring to determine the CoF.

Regularly scheduled third-party audits ensure that maintenance contractors are in compliance with industry standards.

Complying with industry standards is crucial in mitigating risk because it has been scientifically proven that there is a direct correlation between the likelihood of a slip and fall accident and the CoF .

Architects, manufacturers and installers of hard surface flooring use newly developed standards in floor safety (ACUTest) to protect themselves from slip and fall accidents and the associated liabilities.

Maintenance service providers need to adopt a floor safety management program and include regularly scheduled testing in their maintenance contracts to help prevent slip and fall accidents and the associated liabilities.

The ACUTest requires the use of the BOT3000 Digital Tribometer, and the BOT3000 is the most widely accepted technology in the field of floor safety.

This technology is admissible in a court of law because it adheres to the five criteria of the Daubert Principle.

All results and data from this tribometer serve as evidence that the provider was doing everything within their means to maintain safe walkway surfaces.

Maintaining safe walkway surfaces and reducing exposure starts with CoF testing.

As with all things, safety means being proactive. A call to Nano-Concepts to be referred to a factory trained applicator is a great first step. 1-855-687-0976

A discussion of current non-slip standards

The OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1910 Subpart D is the standard that discusses non-slip walking surfaces. According to Slip, Trip, and Fall Prevention by Steven Di Pilla
“OSHA refers to four separate slip resistance standards, each promulgated at different times and with varying degrees of enforceability.”
Just like all governmental regulations these Standards are in a state of constant change and evolution, however we reviewed all of the references to nonslip and made sure that our nonslip products meet the intent of the Standards and the specific requirements discussed. The most specific “standard” cited by OSHA is in Appendix A to Subpart D — Compliance Guidelines which is called a “nonmandatory” appendix. In this appendix section 2. Slip Resistance. It states:

In addition there are two other sources that are used when evaluating nonslip surfaces, these are ANSI/NFSI and the ADA. Here are the guidelines that each has issued.
NSFI – B101 and ANSI 1264 establish traction standards and methods for measuring the SCOF. The Standards are established as follows:
• High-Traction (SCOF of 0.6+)
• Moderate Traction (SCOF of 0.4 – 0.6)
• Low Traction (SCOF of <0.4)
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
The ADA discusses ground and floor surfaces in Section 4.5 where they say in general that:
Specifically the ADA discusses Coefficient of Friction requirements in Appendix A4.5.1:

Slip and Fall FAQ’s

I found the following question and answer article on the website of a California personal injury law firm recently and thought it might be interesting for you to have their legal perspective.

Slip & Fall FAQs
Some of the most commonly occurring personal injuries are the result of slip and fall accidents. Even a wet floor could trigger such an accident. This is especially true if the owner or business does not provide adequate warning about these things, which could be considered potentially dangerous. Many people who have been involved in a slip and fall accident may not know what to do next. The law offices of Banafsheh, Danesh & Javid, P.C. has been helping injured victims for over a decade. For answers to all of your questions, contact our team of highly trained lawyers.
Many times, people who have been injured in California slip and fall accidents will have a number of questions. Some of those which are most commonly asked include:
Q. I fell at work; is it possible to sue my employer for these injuries?
A. Generally, no. When you slip and fall at work, these incidents fall under the workers compensation laws and you must inform your employer so that the process of being paid can start.
Q. What is a slip and fall type of accident?
A. Slip and fall accidents are when you have fallen and injured yourself. There are also several other types of so-called fall accidents:
• Trip and fall accidents: here you trip over some foreign object that is in a walking path
• Stump and fall accidents: there is some kind of impediment in the walking surface itself which causes a fall
• Step and fall accidents: there is an unexpected failure or hole in the walking surface
Q. Is there another name for slip and fall accidents?
A. Yes, these types of accidents are often referred to by lawyers as premises liability accidents. This is due to the fact that if the owner of the premises did not provide adequate warning or notice, nor did they take the proper care and steps to repair the dangerous conditions, they may be held liable for any injuries which result.
Q. What is a hazardous condition?
A. Simply put, this is a situation where there is a potential for injury. This can include anything from ice or snow on the steps of a business that was not removed to something being broken such as a step or part of a walkway. Situations in which something is broken are usually more likely to result in an owner being found negligent and liable, since it is assumed they should have known about it and did not fix the problem.
Q. Who is responsible for a slip and fall accident?
A. Both parties involved normally share some of the responsibility. Of course, the property owner has a duty to ensure that their property (house, place of business, etc) is kept safe. At the same time, each person has the duty to watch where they are going and take reasonable and proper care. This includes having the understanding that there might be things which can fall or spill out into a walkway or other surface.
Q. What is comparative negligence?
A. This is a legal principle which California follows in personal injury cases. Basically, it means that each party involved in an accident may have potentially contributed to its cause. This means that it is possible to determine a percentage of fault or liability for each party. This could be anywhere from 0 to 100. However, whatever percentage of liability you are assigned, this will directly reduce any compensation award. In other words, if you are found to have been 25% responsible for the accident (and the premises owner 75% responsible), then your award will be reduced by 25%

Q. What should I do after being injured in a slip and fall accident?
A. You need to report the accident as soon as possible. If this happened at a place of business, report it to the manager and insist they fill out an accident report. Also, take photos of the area of your accident (this is especially helpful if there is no one to report your accident to). Make sure the report documents the conditions which may have caused the fall along with any other needed information. Also note if any witnesses were present and who they were.
Q. What types of compensation may I be entitled to?
A. This depends on the extent of your injuries. Generally, they include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and other factors depending on the exact circumstances of your case.

When the owner of a business is aware of a hazard on his property, including floors which become slippery when wet he becomes negligent if he does nothing to eliminate the problem. NanoGrip is an easy fix for tile, marble, granite, or concrete floors which become slippery when wet. With one simple application these floors are brought into compliance with OSHA and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards for slip resistance. For a referral to an independent contractor qualified to perform SCOF (slipperiness) testing and NanoGrip slip resistance treatment call 855-687-0976.


Gabrielle Shonk’s Voice Is Too Big for Small Towns

The next Alicia Keys is Québécois.

Jul 11 2016, 2:44pm

Photos by

Habits are like uncles: Everybody’s got a good, a bad, and a weird one. Of my lesser attractive habits, saying no ranks highest; As an editor for an art site, a large part of my job involves telling people that I don’t—and won’t—write about their music. So sue me: on a Friday evening a few weekends past, I opened one such erroneous email and listened. Now, I’ve got a “Habit” of listening to Québécois singer-songwriter Gabrielle Shonk’s first indie-folk single on repeat ad infinitum.

Shonk sounds like an amalgamation of the past 20 years of star female songstresses—minus their worst habits. Think: Alicia Keys without the rap-guy features; Fiona Apple minus the self-flagellation; Amy Winehouse without, well… Instead, the 27-year-old crooner is something of an anomaly in a world of fast fame. Sure, she smashed her appearance on the Canadian broadcast of The Voice a couple years ago, but even time spent teaching jazz at Arquemuse, a nonprofit music school in Québec, hasn’t added a single note of insincerity or irony to her dulcimer tones. Her voice is akin to that of a young Jewel yodeling in a bar in Homer, Alaska, or Christina Aguilera at a Pittsburgh talent show—perfected yet still pure.

This September Shonk’s releasing her debut album. Until then, I’ll be deep in another bad habit: praying for the music industry to not shut its greedy jaws around another good one. For the sake of capturing the undeniable ‘here and now’ that oozes from “Habit” and its Dragos Chiriac-directed music video, I interviewed Gabrielle Shonk about songwriting, singing between languages, and the anxiety that comes from being a big voice in a small town.

Noisey: Is "Habit" about a type of person, or a specific person?
Gabrielle Shonk:
A specific person.

When did you write it, and why?
I actually wrote it a while ago. Back in 2011, 2012 maybe… I wrote it after a failed relationship. Writing music is always a good/healing way to purge different emotions.

Can you tell me about putting music to lyrics? For me, it's a cyclical song until it breaks, but then it settles back down where it could begin again—a lot like a "habit" itself.
My writing process most often involves writing the music before the lyrics. I’m more of a musician/singer than a writer, so the lyrics often stream off of chord and melody ideas. I like writing the music first ’cause I find it sets the mood for the song and inspires me the lyrics. There’s an emotional connection then between both spheres so even if you don’t quite understand the lyrics because of a language barrier (French, for example) or other reasons, you can still get and feel the intention of the song.

Oh, I really like your analysis of the song. The repetition going on in the lyrics and the whole 6/8 feel does give a going back and forth impression. It’s been really cool to see how this song touches people in different ways. You don’t necessarily think of that when you write a song. Especially for this one, the writing process came from a very selfish place of just expressing these different emotions that I needed to process. I wasn’t really thinking of how people would react to it. I felt it was very revealing on a personal level since I wrote it from life experience, but kind of just decided to leave it that way. I’ve been getting emails and comments from a bunch of people telling me how the song and the lyrics hit close to their hearts… That’s just so amazing to me!

This is your debut music video. What were some important things you needed Dragos to retain, when going from song to image?
Dragos and I have been friends for awhile now and have worked on songs and videos together in the past (he is also a great musician and sound engineer: Men I Trust, Ghostly Kisses), so I know his work and personality pretty well. I know how much of a passionate and perfectionist person he is (as am I) and I love and trust his artistic taste. It seemed very fitting that he worked on the visuals of the project with me and we turned out to be a great team. To be honest, I pretty much gave him carte blanche on the whole project, haha! He shared the photographic DIY vision he had of the video and I decided to get on board with it. He knows me as an artist, and also as a person, so I trusted his idea would well represent me and it totally does! I’m so stoked with what he did; it’s natural it’s simple, yet beautiful, not flashy or tacky (to my taste) and it portrays the emotion of the song perfectly. He really focuses on bringing out the natural beauty and simplicity of things and people and I love that. Plus we ended up having a blast doing it!

Back in 2014, "Habit" was a jazz song. Tell me about your move into the realm of indie folk. Is it something that has come with age?
Folk and soul are actually my first two musical crushes. I discovered artists such as Tracy Chapman and Aretha Franklin as a kid and it kind of always stuck with me throughout the years. I became very passionate and invested in jazz while studying music in college. For awhile during university I kind of put writing music aside and focused on developing and working on my voice itself through singing a lot of jazz. I wrote “Habit” around the time I was finishing school and finding the urge to create my own music again. The jazzy twist it had in the beginning sort of came naturally since I had been singing in that genre for a while. I co-wrote the music for the song with my longtime friend and bandmate Jessy Caron (guitar) who was also a jazz head at the time. The more I wrote though, the more I found myself go back to my musical roots and my love for folk and indie music. I liked “Habit” a lot but when we started putting my first album together, the jazz twist didn’t feel fitting anymore. I thought the song had potential though, so I presented it to Simon Pedneault (the producer of my album) and we brainstormed on how we could maybe recycle the song and make it work with the sound and vibe we were going for. Simon came up with the 6/8 metric instead of it being swingy in 4/4. I immediately fell in love with the idea and we kept working on the song from there. So glad we didn’t just throw it away!

English is not your primary language, yet you learned to sing in it perfectly. Who were some of your inspirations?
I was actually born in the US. I’m from Providence Rhode Island, to be more exact, but I’ve been living in Quebec City since I was five. My dad is American and my mom is French-Canadian. English is actually my first language, but I’ve been living in French my whole life. I don’t get to speak English very frequently in Quebec City, except with my Dad, so singing, reading, listening to music and watching TV in English have been my unconscious ways of keeping the language active. I have so many different inspirations I love a bunch of vintage artists as more contemporary ones… If I were to drop a few classic names I’d say: Tracy Chapman, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Feist, Billie Holiday etc. etc. The list could go on for days… Fun fact: I started singing as a kid but only started playing guitar in high school. I started accompanying myself on the guitar because I wanted to cover Dashboard Confessional songs (back in 2001/2002). Yes, I’m an ex punk-rock/emo kid!

Is it ever a challenge to go back and forth between languages?
It actually is sometimes. For writing and speaking. But mainly I’d say it’s really fun! Sometimes my brain thinks in English when I’m trying to write a song in French and vice versa. Same type of thing happens when I speak; for example I’ll be speaking English and totally blank out on a word but know it in French and will not be able to remember it or translate it. The most challenging part I think was switching between both languages during the recording of my album. There are songs in French and English on this album and it was very interesting to see the difference in my voice going back and forth between both. I’m very much used to singing in English, but was less used to singing in French. So in the studio the French songs ended up being more challenging for me to sing even if the range was easier. I observed up and close that it takes time and practice to really fit your voice to a language while keeping your own tone and color.

What can you tell me about your debut full-length, coming out in September?
It’s a 10 track full-length album. Seven songs in English and three in French. The album is raw, it comes from a very vulnerable and honest place. It a synthesis of all these years I’ve been writing songs and haven’t released anything, yet it very well represents who I am as an artist and where I’m at right now. Every single person involved in the process is not only amazing at what they do, but are also really good friends. The investment, dedication, and support these people put into the whole project is crazy and I am forever grateful for each and every one of them. It’s an album that is filled with so much love and heart and I really hope people will sense that.

Musically I’d describe it as a folk-popish album but I think you can definitely hear a lot of my different influences such as soul, jazz, blues, etc. There’s a vintage feel to the whole album, but it’s wrapped in a contemporary sound… If that makes any sense haha!

The video for "Habit" is filled with all kinds of hometown anxiety. If you could leave home for anywhere, where would it be, and why?
Right now I’d leave home to go pretty much anywhere on tour with my band I guess. I feel this urge to play these original songs live. We’ve been working on them in our living rooms and in the studio for the last two years so I really can’t wait to just get out there and travel with my music. There’s something so special in sharing live music with new faces in new places. I’m really looking forward to it! Plus the guys I play with are just down straight lovable and amazing so I’m excited to share the stage with them.

Grab a free download of “Habit” here.

Emerson Rosenthal is an editor at The Creators Project. He doesn’t have Twitter because he’s original like that but you can read his articles here.