Foot Injuries Are No Fun
What can be the harm of wearing running shoes or sandals at work? After all, your job as a custodian is not particularly dangerous, is it?

Your work has many risks of foot injury. Dropping even a small item such as a tool or a bucket on your foot can do a surprising amount of damage. Stepping on a sharp object such as broken glass is another possible source of injury.

A foot injury may not seem like a big deal until you have one. Crushing injuries, fractures, punctures, cuts and even damaged toenails can keep you from walking and working for days, weeks or months. In fact, a foot injury can be permanently disabling. Minor foot injuries have escalated into fatal infections.

Your toes and feet can be injured on the job in a number of ways:

• You could step on a board with nails sticking up, and puncture the sole of your shoe and your foot.
• Sharp objects could cut into your feet, or you could slip or fall and sprain toes and feet.
• Dropping tools or loads on feet is a hazard that could smash a toe.
• You could be moving heavy boxes on a handcart and roll the cart over a foot and crush it.
• Temperature extremes can cause frostbite or blisters. You could also burn a foot with hot liquids.
• Absorbing a dangerous chemical through the skin of your feet could affect your overall health.

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You need to protect your feet by using sturdy, enclosed footwear. Wise choices for footwear start with boots or shoes with steel safety-toes. These are available in various styles and protect your feet from crushing or from falling objects. Additionally, a flexible metal piece on boots with reinforced soles protects against cuts and punctures.

If you handle heavy materials, you should wear boots with metatarsal guards. These metal strips overlap the steel toe-box and lessen the force of impacts. Metatarsal guards distribute the energy of a blow over more of the area on the safety boot.

Certain work environments also require other types of protective footwear. For instance, If you work around sensitive electronic equipment, you may need to wear Electrostatic Dissipating Shoes (EDS). To protect the electronics equipment, the shoes channel static electricity from your body and drain it into a specially grounded floor.

Or in a healthcare setting you may need footwear designed to prevent the spread of infection.

If you are working around chemicals, your footwear would be made of a particular rubber or vinyl material that would guard you against exposure.

It’s also important for your footwear to be in good repair and fastened securely to prevent trips and falls. Between wearings, keep your footwear clean and conditioned. Inspect it for dampness, cracks, cuts or embedded metal pieces.

Special cleaning assignments such as flood, fire or crime scene cleanup will call for special protective gear including footwear. Get advice from your supervisor about how best to protect yourself.

This article originally appeared in the Safety|Smart! Weekly Briefing electronic magazine and is copyright of and used with permission by Bongarde Media.