From walking on wet leaves to cleaning out gutters, 4 fall hazards and how to stay safe
Autumn is known for the change in foliage and apple picking, but between navigating on wet leaves and climbing ladders to cleaning out gutters or putting up holiday decorations, it’s also a bad scenario for slips and falls.
While fall risks increase with age — and the consequences can be a lot more serious — doctors stress that injuries from falls can happen to anyone, making it important for everyone to be aware of the dangers.
Yahoo Life sought out three emergency room physicians to break down the biggest fall hazards this time of year, plus how to avoid them.
First, why are falls dangerous?
While it’s possible to fall down without any serious consequences, falls can lead to severe injury, Dr. Daniel Bachmann, an emergency medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life.
“The severity depends on a lot of factors, including your age and mobility, where you happen to fall and from what height you’re falling from,” Bachmann says. Most of the fall injuries he sees in the ER are bruises and cuts. “But there are bone injuries, including fractures and dislocations, along with sprains,” he says. “If you hit your head, you can also have a head injury.”
Falls are especially dangerous for older adults, Dr. Michael Levine, an emergency medicine physician at UCLA Health, tells Yahoo Life. “When elderly patients fall, they sometimes break their hip, and that could lead to significant decrease in quality of life and sometimes shorten life expectancy,” he says. “Certainly, if someone hits their head when they fall, there is a risk of bleeding in the brain or around the brain, which can be fatal.”
The biggest fall hazards in the fall
Certain activities associated with this season can put you at a higher risk of slips and falls. These are some of the biggest ones doctors recommend being careful of:
Navigating wet leaves
That fall foliage can accumlate and get wet, creating a slippery surface that’s ripe for slips and falls. “If you have the ability, do not walk on wet leaves,” Bachmann says. “The best way to avoid injury from wet leaves or really any surface that’s treacherous is to avoid the surface itself.”
If the leaves have accumulated in an area that you need to walk over regularly, such as on your driveway or the sidewalk in front of your home, Bachmann suggests doing your best to clean it up often. But if there are leaves in your path and there is no way of avoiding them, Bachmann recommends taking your time and understanding that there’s a risk to walking on slippery surfaces.
Cleaning gutters
It’s no surprise that cleaning out gutters, which typically requires climbing on a ladder, comes with a risk of falling. “This is not something that you should be doing by yourself, if you can help it,” Dr Anjali Bharati, an emergency room physician at Lenox Health Greenwich Village, tells Yahoo Life. “The gutters around the perimeter of a roof are very high and usually need to be accessed by a ladder.”
Being on a ladder raises the risk that you’ll fall from a taller height — and that increases the odds of a serious injury, Bachmann says. “Any time you fall from a height greater than standing, it increases the force exerted on your body when you hit the ground,” he says.
Putting up holiday decorations
Fall is the season for two big holidays — Halloween and Thanksgiving — and many people also start putting up their winter holiday decorations in autumn. But a lot of this decorating often involves using a ladder, which can be risky.
“People will often put themselves in a situation where their stability is compromised,” Bachmann says. “That can mean being on a ladder in an unstable position.” It’s easy to see how you might also want to try to grab something that’s just out of reach on a ladder or try to avoid moving your ladder as much as possible, putting you in more precarious situations. “But instability is the greatest risk factor related to falls,” Bachmann says.
Walking in dim lighting
The sun sets earlier in fall, especially when daylight saving time ends in November. That means more people are walking outside in dim or dark conditions, raising the odds of falling, Bachmann says.
“Your stability is really a combination of factors,” he says, listing balance, vision and mobility as key elements. “But when we’re talking about the risk of walking in the dark, one of those three things is compromised,” Bachmann says. If you walk a dog in the evening, you’re adding in an element of instability, he says.
How to lower your risk of falls in the fall
Navigating these potential hazards this time of year is all about risk management, Bharati says. “You need to be aware of the surface of the ground, and your surroundings in general,” she says.
If you need to get on a ladder, Bharati recommends making sure that it’s on an even surface and doing your best to avoid trying to get anything that’s out of reach, whether it’s a few missed leaves in your gutter or a crooked holiday decoration. Instead, place the ladder where you need it.
Bachmann recommends slowing down. “Oftentimes, injuries we see related to falls are due to people who may have been rushing or trying to take shortcuts to try to get something done,” he says.
If you need to walk in dim or dark conditions, Bachmann suggests taking a flashlight. “Walk on the area of the street where it’s lit better, if you can,” he says. Wearing well-fitting shoes that have soles with good traction can also be helpful, according to Levine.
Bharati suggests having someone else clean your gutters if you can afford it. “Leave it to the professionals,” she says. “It’s not worth the risk.”