Human Factors

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Occupational Fall Prevention
and Protection

By Hongwei Hsiao & Thomas J. Armstrong, Special Issue Editors

     Members and nonmembers are invited to submit papers for a special issue of Human Factors devoted to the prevention of and protection from occupational falls.

     Slips and falls are serious events that can lead to injury in the workplace. A recent report by the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that there were 260,610 nonfatal fall-related occupational injuries involving days away from work in 2008, which accounted for about a quarter of occupational injuries in the year. BLS also reported 847 fall-related fatalities for calendar year 2007, which accounted for 15% of overall occupational fatality cases.

     The health services and wholesale and retail industries experience the highest frequency of nonfatal fall injuries, and the construction industry continues to suffer the highest rate of fall-related fatalities. Health care support, building cleaning and maintenance, transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction occupations are particularly at risk of slips and falls. Compensation and medical costs associated with employee slip-and-fall incidents have been estimated at approximately $70 billion annually in the United States. Many countries are facing the same challenges as the United States with slip-and-fall injuries in the workplace.

     We invite submissions dealing with topics including, but not limited to,

• Fall hazard assessment
• Fall injury mechanisms and modeling
• Preventing falls from elevation
• Control of slips, trips, and falls
• Intervention methods and effectiveness
• Fall risks among high-risk and vulnerable worker groups.

The special issue is intended to bring national attention to fall prevention research and increase fall prevention funding opportunities. In addition, the publication will encourage international collaboration to accomplish global strategic goals for fall prevention and protection.

     Article submissions are limited to 4,500 words, excluding abstract, key points, and references. Manuscripts with multi-experiment series are limited to 4,500 words plus 3,000 words for each experiment (or model) beyond the first experiment. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/humanfactors; be sure to indicate the Occupational Fall Prevention special issue. Submissions are due by January 3, 2011. View the Instructions for Authors for additional information on submitting manuscripts. Initial review results will be available by April 8, 2011. The final revision deadline is October 7, 2011, and acceptance notifications will be sent by November 4, 2011. Publication of the special issue is expected by mid-2012. Please address questions to Special Issue Editors Hongwei Hsiao at hxh4@cdc.gov or Thomas J. Armstrong at tja@umich.edu.

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