Page 44 - Occupational Health & Safety, October 2017

HEALTH & FITNESS
Stairway to Health
The link between fire safety and physical activity is causing health and safety experts to promote the daily use of the stairs in multi-story office buildings. BY SETH VALCHEV
Slowly but surely, the responsibilities of health and safety practitioners are expand- ing. While mitigating the risk of physical accidents once dominated, now attention is moving to the prevention of long-term diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Even in the most physically dangerous sectors such as oil exploration, “lifestyle” conditions now pose a clear and present danger. In developed nations, they account for the bulk of health spend and time off work and, by 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates they will account for almost three-quarters of all deaths worldwide.
They are different disciplines, but the mitigation of accidents and prevention of long-term illness often mix. For example, an increase in our average size and weight has resulted in slower evacuation times from the helicopters that serve North Sea drilling plat- forms. This in turn has resulted in a reduction in the number of passengers being allowed to fly at any one time and a steep increase in costs.
A similar but more common dynamic exists with regard to the efficient evacuation of multi-story office buildings in the case of fire or, perhaps just as wor- rying at the moment, terrorist attack. As John Abra- hams and Paul Stollard point out in their book “Fire from First Principles: A Design Guide to Building Fire Safety,” it is vital that building occupants both know
where the emergency stairs are and that they have the physical fitness required to use them.
At the same time, a lack of physical activity dur- ing the working day is a major risk factor for the de- velopment of long-term conditions. Office staff who are inactive are significantly more likely to become obese and to suffer from vascular conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Even some forms of stress, anxiety, and depression are linked to a lack of exercise.
Two Birds, One Stone
It is the link between fire safety and physical activity that is now causing many health and safety experts to re-evaluate and promote the daily use of the stairs in multi-story office buildings.
While once the office stairs were seen only as a means of escape in case of emergency, now all staff are being encouraged to use them in place of the el- evators wherever they can. Not only does the change boost staff wellness generally, but also it makes people much more familiar with a building’s escape routes and more physically able to use them.
Such is the change in thinking that new global building certifications such as the Delos WELL Build- ing Standard and the Fitwel healthy building certifica- tion require building operators to promote stair use in their properties as a condition of qualifying.
“Sedentary behavior and a lack of physical activity
40 Occupational Health & Safety | OCTOBER 2017
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