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Improving Stairway Usability and Safety to Enhance Life Safety
Track(s): Building & Life Safety

Jake Pauls, Jake Pauls Consulting Services

Audio Sample:




Defective stairways are a leading cause of injuries in buildings, greatly outnumbering the toll from fire. Proper stairway design has been an especially important component of NFPA 101® and NFPA 5000 in all editions during last 33 years of the presenter's lead role in advancing stairway safety and usability on the relevant NFPA committees. Specific examples of NFPA's contributions to improved safety and usability are highlighted. Understanding three key sets of factors (visibility, geometry and handrails) is critical to improving stairway safety, as well as their usability in all conditions including egress. Such improved understanding of these key factors, plus practical problems of implementation, can help reduce the current societal cost, on the order of $10 million dollars per hour, in the USA.

NFPA member Jake Pauls, a Certified Professional Ergonomist, has 44 years of international experience in research, codes and standards development, public health advocacy plus consulting. His expertise is in ergonomic, architectural, engineering and regulatory aspects of movement of people, individually and in crowds, especially on stairways. Widely published, he serves on several NFPA standards and codes committees and is known for bridging among ergonomics, public health and development of requirements for building usability and safety.