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May 27, 2010

Werner Braun: Carpet is a safety device

By Werner Braun President, Carpet and Rug Institute Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — Most of us who reside here in the carpet capital of the world, oftentimes don’t think twice about why we carpet our homes. We take for granted the reasons we put down carpet in our businesses, and why our schools and hospitals and just about any place we visit are “walked upon” billboards for the region’s dominant industry.

Dalton and carpet, after all, are pretty much synonymous.

The reasons people continue to put carpet on their floors are almost as varied as the choices of colors, patterns and textures of the carpet itself.  Make no mistake; carpet is the floor covering of choice for a reason — last week I discussed carpet’s ability to absorb sound, and now we move on to carpet’s safety and comfort features.

I was sitting on my couch last week when I heard “carpet gives you less to worry about so you can spend more time doing the things you love” coming from my television. I looked up to a carpet commercial, with parents throwing a house party while their kids and the family dog were running through the house. The simple commercial made me start thinking how carpet gives my family and business extra security and comfort.  

Carpet continues to make our homes and business a better place by providing a softer surface that is ideal for cushioning our footsteps, reducing slips and falls and minimizing injuries when falls do occur; not to mention, carpet underfoot just feels better.

The majority of people today still purchase carpet for this obvious reason — it just feels better.  Anyone who stands for prolonged periods on smooth floors can appreciate the cushioning effect carpet provides. One study even showed that carpeted floors were 82 percent less stressful than smooth floors. With back and leg fatigue being critical issues to professionals such as teachers and those who walk the floors in retail all day, the benefit is also one of a performance issue. Once again, studies have shown pleasing surroundings play a very intricate role in performance and, at the educational level, performance equates to a better learning environment for our children and the teachers.

Unfortunately, accidents are going to happen. People fall and people drop things. Slips occur when there is too little friction or traction between the footwear and the walking surface. The most common slips happen on wet or oily surfaces, occasional spills, or loose, unanchored rugs or mats, and flooring or other walking surfaces that do not have the same degree of traction in all areas.

But yet again, carpet saves the day — literally. The stats show that more deaths occur from injuries sustained in falls than any other source indoors. The slip-and-fall benefit of carpet is one of our favorites to tout because of such statistics. A report generated from a hospital environment shows that a significantly less chance of injury occurs on carpet compared to other floor surfaces and we also know that the severity of those injuries is significantly less as well.

Another study by CRI also discovered that people are seven times more likely to fall on other types of flooring surfaces than on carpet, while carpet is six times more likely to prevent an injury from occurring if you do fall in your home or business. Not to mention, have you ever dropped a dish or glass before? Chances are you probably spent the next few minutes cleaning up broken dish and glass if it wasn’t on carpet.

So what can you do to protect yourself and your family, specifically toddlers and older individuals, from slips and falls? Make sure that all rugs and mats are properly attached to floors, especially in bathrooms and kitchens where spills are more prevalent. As for all the other rooms in your house, properly installed carpet is the number one safety measure for slips and falls, and the best comfort. But, I am obviously biased toward carpet.      

 

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