Slippery outside?
Walk like you're 90.

Check out this YouTube video about how to walk safely in winter weather

A little more than three months into FY09 an unusually snowy winter has tripped up Fermilab's safety record. We've already reached the four restricted-work DART injury cases allowed for the year.

Slippery surfaces have led to falls in the parking lots and during work activities, including two injuries that required medical treatment. Most of the injuries could have been avoided through prevention efforts and the rescheduling of tasks.

With more snow expected this week, employees need to rethink how they walk outside and how they manage tasks.

"Supervisors need to consider weather conditions when assigning jobs, putting off nonessential outdoor tasks until weather improves," said ES&H Head Nancy Grossman. "As always, employees also need to consider their safety when performing work-related duties and take necessary precautions -- this includes walking to and from their vehicles."

You can find shoe cleats such as these at outdoor or sporting stores.

For essential tasks, supervisors should consider providing walking poles and devices that add traction. Local sporting goods stores stock such equipment. You may view samples of these items in the Office of Communication on the first floor.

Try using poles to increase stability.

A few simple changes in how you walk can reduce your chances of slips and falls.

• Wear the proper foot gear. Hard plastic or leather soles slip easily.
• Walk like a 90-year-old, taking small, slow steps, keeping your feet flat and your knees slightly bent. This lowers your center of gravity.
• Keep both hands free for balance, rather than in your pockets.
• Use handrails.
• Avoid carrying loads during poor weather.
• Look where you are walking.
• Test potentially slick areas by slightly touching them with one foot first.
• When exiting vehicles or equipment hold onto the frame and step, don't jump onto the pavement.
• Avoid stairs and inclines when possible.

If you do start to fall, follow these steps to lessen your injury.

• Fall to the side and lean slightly forward. Falling backward increases the risk of head injury.
• Try to absorb the fall with sequential contact on your thigh, hip and shoulder rather than your arms to decrease the risk of broken bones.
• Relax your muscles.
• Roll with the fall.
• Drop your packages and protect yourself.
• Get up by starting on your hands and knees.

-- Tona Kunz

New CERN director-general speaks to staff

From symmetrybreaking, Jan. 12, 2009

New CERN Director-General Rolf-Dieter Heuer. Photo: Maximilien Brice, CERN

New CERN director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer gave his first presentation to the CERN community this morning in Geneva, Switzerland. Heuer's talk, well received by a standing-room-only crowd, outlined his vision for the particle physics laboratory's next five years. A summary is below, or the full one-hour presentation can be viewed, along with powerpoint slides, online.

LHC repair, restart

No new schedule for the LHC restart has been issued; the current plan still shows the LHC being cold and ready for beams again by mid-July. Things may change by mid-February, however. Heuer hopes that a final schedule addressing the time to complete repairs, and the duration, energy, and luminosity for collisions in 2009, will be issued after a meeting in Chamonix, France, scheduled for the first week in February. The LHC repair cost, including the resupply of spare magnets, was estimated at 30-40 million Swiss Francs. Two additional external assessment groups are being set up in the wake of the incident last September: one to examine the LHC's quench protection system and another to investigate risk analysis. Another task force will re-examine the safety of personnel in the underground areas associated with the LHC.

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