The Walking-Working Surfaces; Personal Protective Equipment standard, 29 CFR 1910.22, was published in the Federal Register on November 18, 2016, at pages 82494-83006. Most of the rule became effective Jan. 18, 2017, but some provisions have delayed effective dates.

The latest standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) put practical measures in place to improve safety, but also engrain safety as a priority within company culture.

To help reduce same-level slip, trip and fall incidents, OSHA recently a provision to the walking-working surface rules for facilities to conduct regular inspections of all walking-working surfaces. This, coupled with the new requirement to fix any hazards that are found will help prevent slip, trip and fall incidents.

Training is one of the most critical elements in safety. Providing workers with the required skills and knowledge to safely do their work is extremely important to OSHA. So important, in fact, that more than 100 of OSHA’s current standards contain specific training requirements.

New year, new rule. As we ring out the old in 2016, we ring in the first major general industry OSHA update since the 1970s for walking-working surfaces (subpart D) and fall protection systems standards (subpart I) when a new ruling takes effect on January 17.1

At the time of this writing, no U.S. government agency mandates performance specifications, nor is there any industry consensus defining slip resistance for PPE footwear in the US.