Footprint for Avoiding Injury
Category: Press Article
Publication: Paralegal Press, Fall/Winter 2024.
Author: Geoffrey T. Desmoulin.
Summary:
The ASTM International test for impact worthiness of safety boots involves measuring the amount of deformation of a modeling clay cylinder placed in the toe of the boot. The amount of force the impact would impart to the foot is not directly measured.
Consequently, such tests cannot accurately estimate the risk of injury to the foot.
In the workplace, objects of any size could fall on the boot, potentially producing pressure over a much larger area than a one-inch diameter circle. While the ASTM test requires all of the momentum of the impactor to be stopped by the region of impact with the boot, in the workplace, the momentum of a large falling object is more likely to be partially stopped by both the boot and the ground.
To more realistically simulate the injury risk of an object dropped on footwear, GTD Scientific, Inc. developed a rig which provides an objective measure of the impact force sustained by the foot. The rig allows the object’s weight and size to be varied, as well as the height from which the object is dropped.
