A tall order for builders

Public Health

The building industry could be in for a shake up following the results of a University of Adelaide study that has found Australians are outgrowing the regulation height of safety barriers and balustrades.

In researching the height of balustrades, stairs, ramps and escalators in Australian buildings, Health and Social Sciences student Emily Caruana found that nearly 25% of men have cause for concern.

"Almost a quarter of men now have a centre of gravity higher than the minimum balustrade height of 100cm," the final-year undergraduate student said.

"The minimum required height of safety barriers on stairs, ramps and escalators is even lower, at 865mm."

Emily undertook the research as part of a public health internship within the Injury Surveillance and Control Unit in the South Australian Department of Health.

Her project was instigated by an incident in a suburban shopping centre in Adelaide in 2005 when an 18-year-old woman sustained serious head injuries after falling six metres over the side of a balustrade.

"Falls from, out of, or through a building or structure are the leading cause of fall deaths in Australia among people aged 15-44, but this type of injury could potentially be avoided," Ms Caruana said.

"The current building code regulation for balustrade height, which has not been altered since 1988, may not be sufficient to avoid accidental falls."

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' most current records (from 1995), 25% of the male population are 180cm or more in height, which means their centre of gravity is 101cm or higher.

"Over time, both the height and the weight of Australians has increased, but the regulation height of balustrades has not been altered to reflect these changes" Ms Caruana said.

Ms Caruana said that the average Australian adult weighs four kilograms more than they did in the late 1980s. For men this extra weight tends to be located in the chest and waist area and this causes an uneven weight distribution, which can cause the body's centre of gravity to move upwards.

Most women are still covered by the current standards, although 5% exceed the 100cm centre of gravity.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that injuries due to falls are the second leading cause of injury mortality in Australia. In 2001/02, 39 cases of spinal injury were also due to falls from a height of more than one metre.

While the current barrier heights were set in 1988, the last notable studies of centre of gravity were conducted in 1922 for males
and 1938 for females.

Ms Caruana's studies were supervised by Dr Ron Somers from the Injury Surveillance and Control Unit and Dr Afzal Mahmood of the Discipline of Public Health at the University of Adelaide.

Story by Candy Gibson