While there are seemingly endless opportunities to get yourself injured on the job, falling from height is up there as one of the worst. It's a leading cause of workplace injury and the top cause of workplace death, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Drops from a greater height strongly correlate with more severe trauma and a higher risk of fatality, but you don't actually have to fall all that far to do yourself a mischief. Even small drops can result in a variety of nasty injuries—and unlike the majority of workplace mishaps, the physical trauma sustained from a fall from height is quite likely to be life changing. A bad fall could end your career, or worse still, your life.
Here are some of the most common injuries that can result from falling from height...
Skin and soft tissue injuries
Your skin is the number one barrier between you and the world around you, so naturally it bears the brunt of the impact when you fall and hit the ground. The higher your starting point, the greater that impact will be; long falls can severely damage your bones and internal organs, but if you're falling from a lesser height (i.e. 4 metres or less) then you might walk away with skin and soft tissue injuries only.
Depending on how you land, these flesh wounds can happen anywhere on the body, especially if the skin is exposed. That's why it's important to wear suitable clothing when you work at height—always try cover up as much of your skin as is practical.
Broken bones (fractures)
The greater your fall, the more likely you are to sustain some bone breakage upon hitting the ground. A higher starting point means a longer drop, which means more time for acceleration and a higher velocity as you hit the ground. That in turn means a larger deceleration on impact, and there's only so much cushioning your skin and muscles can provide.
As with skin, how and where you land is going to affect which parts of your skeleton take the most damage. This tends to mean any body part you instinctively use to try to break your fall—think hands, arms and shoulders, or feet and legs—but it also includes breaking your fall unintentionally with your pelvis or even your head.
Landing on the pelvis, the chest (ribs) or head (skull) can not only fracture the bones taking the impact but may also cause spinal fractures. Alarmingly, some studies found head trauma to be the second most frequent outcome of falls from height (after skin and subcutaneous tissue injury).
Organ damage
Your skull, ribs and pelvis are responsible for protecting some extremely important organs. There are also some vital organics—large sections of your digestive system, for example—that are protected only by the skin and flesh on your abdomen. All of these organs are potentially vulnerable to the sort of high-impact trauma that falling from height can cause.
Brain injuries are particularly dangerous, and are a leading cause of death from fall injuries, which leads us to…
Fatalities
Unfortunately, despite some amazing advancements in trauma care, there has been little improvement in the survival rate of patients who have sustained severe trauma after falling from height.
This is why we at Safety Harness Direct make your safety our mission and provide a comprehensive range of safety harness kits and other fall protection products at competitive prices, including:
Read our work at height PPE guide to learn more about the safety solutions we can provide.
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