An accident waiting to happen?
Traditionally, the focus of Health and Safety legislation has focused on visual performance – preventing slips, trips and falls. Perhaps that’s not surprising, as slips, trips and falls on the same level are the most common cause of non-fatal workplace injury in the UK, accounting for one-third of all reported incidents in 2022/23 – What Is the Biggest Cause of Workplace Injury?
The costs of those everyday accidents soon add up – the workplace safety monitoring company SpaceBands estimates the average legal cost of a preventable fall at around £10,000. They’re making the business case for their kit, of course, but estimate that when you add up the cost days off sick, replacement/retraining, insurance premiums and HSE fines, every £1 invested in proactive safety measures saves between £3 and £5 for a business – How Much Do Workplace Injuries Cost UK Businesses in 2025?
Evolving picture – time to look again?
While the basic regulations date back to 2014, more recent developments, such as the PPE at Work Regulations 2022 and EU OSH Framework Directive 89/391/EEC reflect a fundamental shift in emphasis: the duty holder is expected to be proactive, to stay up to date on the latest evidence and mitigate forseeable risk.
Where evidence is available and ignored, this may increasingly be viewed as a failure to assess and mitigate known risks.
When it comes to falls prevention, Residential Care Providers are investing in accoustic monitoring and other technologies to show they’re serious about tackling the problem – and hoping to cut the cost of insurance in the process – Preventing Falls in Care Homes: How Technology and Insurance Work Together.
This move is backed by the Department of Health and Social Care in their 10-year plan, stating that ‘An early priority is to protect the 20% of most vulnerable residents in care homes with technologies that prevent falls’ – People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform.
As high-impact scientific journals confirm the potential for lighting (and darkness) to improve sleep and manage the behaviours that increase risk of falls, perhaps it’s time to consider the humble lightbulb as part of that falls prevention strategy too.
1. Circadian-informed lighting and patient outcomes- There is now sufficient evidence to support the widespread introduction of circadian lighting that adjusts light intensity and blue content across day and night to maintain robust circadian entrainment and health’ – Lights should support circadian rhythms: evidence-based scientific consensus.
2. Circadian-informed lighting and shift worker health. ‘Optimized lighting can be an effective countermeasure for shiftwork-related adverse effects on health and safety’ – Lighting the path forward: the value of sleep- and circadian-informed lighting interventions in shift work.
3. Artificial light at night, heart disease and mortality– ‘Not only can they cause annoyance, impacting quality of life, but through the disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms, both noise and light pollution can contribute to heart disease and premature death.) – Light and noise pollution are “neglected pollutants” in need of renewed focus.
4. Bright light therapy, mood and psychobehavioural symptoms. ‘Light therapy leads to significant improvement in sleep and psychobehavioral symptoms and is associated with relatively fewer side effects in patients with AD, indicating its potential as a promising treatment option for AD.’ – The effect of light therapy on sleep disorders and psychobehavioral symptoms in patients with Alzheimer’s disease: A meta-analysis.
5. Medication optimisation – ‘effectiveness and toxicity of medications can vary significantly based on when they are administered, making timing a crucial factor in treatment plans…The chronopharmacology influences clinical practice, and the accumulating knowledge in this field will likely lead healthcare providers to adopt new strategies for drug treatment regimens – The clinical impact of chronopharmacology on current medicine.
So What Does This Mean for Healthcare Providers?
Lighting during the day – and darkness for sleep at night – should be treated as a clinical risk factor, not just an estates issue.
Risk assessments should go beyond basic visual performance and reducing long-lie falls to consider the potential to proactively manage the behaviours that increase the risk of falls in the first place.
Proactive lighting governance supports defensible decision-making, enhances safety and wellbeing, and ensures regulatory compliance — all while mitigating emerging risks that are likely to attract scrutiny in the near future.
A win-win-win!
National Big Wig Day
Dressing up with a wig isn’t new, from the ancient Egyptians who used them to protect their heads from the sun to the elaborate European headpieces first used to cover up the baldness caused by syphilis. It’s fun to try on a new look from time to time.
But today, I take my hat off to all those who, like my amazing neighbour Angie, are dealing with hair loss as a result of cancer treatment and may not feel they have a choice.