Slippery surfaces make for great visual gags in movies, but specifying flooring for public areas is a serious business for architects. The UK's 35,000 annual slip injuries cost the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds according to Malcolm Bailey, secretary of the UK Slip Resistance Group (UKSRG). This does not include injury claims arising from such accidents, a figure likely to be even higher. Under the workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, designers have a duty to ensure that floors are not slippery, so as to expose any person to a safety risk. But how do you define 'slippery'? It depends where you are in Europe. Italy has its Tortus test, a mechanism that measures drag coefficients across surfaces; Germany walks people over a calibrated, inclined ramp to produce its DIN standards 51097 (barefoot and soap solution) and 51130 (safety boots and motor oil); and Britain uses a pendulum test enshrined in BS7976 Parts 1 and 2, with BS8204 for in-situ floors.
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