Ladder Safety
Title translated into English
Ladder Safety
Product submission URL (http:// or https://)
Product description
The Ladder Safety is the first smart phone safety application developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The app is an interactive graphic-oriented set of tools for improving the safety of extension ladder users. The app features an indicator that provides visual, sound, and vibration signals to assist users in quickly positioning an extension ladder at an optimal angle. The application also provides graphic-oriented interactive reference materials, safety guidelines, and checklists for extension ladder selection, inspection, accessorizing, and use, which also can serve as a convenient training tool.
Aims and objectives
Key message: ”Extension ladder safety can be significantly improved without sacrificing productivity, by taking the several simple steps, using the tools available within the smart phone application Ladder Safety”. The aim in developing the Ladder Safety app was to use interactive multimedia content, wide internet delivery, and attractive and convenient smart phone platforms, to deliver to the remote ladder user a set of easy to use ladder safety tools, checklists, guidelines, and reference materials, and in this way reduce the risk of ladder falls and the associated injury. Falls from ladders are a leading cause of fall injury and death. In the US, more than 500,000 people a year are treated, and about 300 people die from ladder-related fall injuries. The estimated annual cost of ladder injuries in the US is $11 billion, including work loss, medical, legal, liability, and pain and suffering expenses.
Using a smart phone application is a direct way to deliver safety tools and information into the hands of both occupational and non-occupational ladder users wherever they are, i.e., at their workplace, in the field, or at home. The safety app is quickly accessible and easy to use; the graphic-oriented content is easy to understand, and the interactive features are both attractive and efficient. Wide availability and access through free downloads on different smart phone platforms (iPhone and Android) devices and operating systems allows reaching multiple remote and isolated workgroups, from both large and small businesses, and individual users, from around the world. Multilingual feature, i.e., availability in English and Spanish, further expands the reach of this safety intervention, and specifically targeting more vulnerable work populations.
Target audience
Construction workers, maintenance workers, trade workers, ladder users, safety professionals, small business owners, industry leaders
Contact details Editor
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health – NIOSH
Willowdale Rd1095, United States-26505 Morgantown
+13042856268+13042856047 psimeonov@cdc.gov
Contact details Production company
CDC, NIOSH
Willowdale Rd1095, USA-26505 Morgantown
+13042856268+13042856047 psimeonov@cdc.gov