Ankle support V's Foot health

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Good afternoon,

I wonder if any of you lovely podiatry folks could assist me.

I am an occupational health nurse who works on a construction site. I got into a bit of a debate with the health and safety manager over appropriate foot wear for the construction staff to wear.

His agrument - all workers should wear lace up boots for good ankle protection.

My argument - workers should not be asked to have their feet subjected to water during their working day through the lace holes.

A compromise that I thought I had found was'rigger' boots with ankel support in situ. He then proceeded to tell be that rigger style boots have a blanket ban accross site due to the lack of ankle support.

My real ask is this - do any of you know of any evidence/research carried out on the ankle protection of construction workers footwear?

I understand his arguement - but the blanket ban on rigger boots with no supportive evidence has got me a lttle miffed. He could not provide me with any evidence nor can I find any in any journals.

Thank you to anyone who can help - your professional opinion would be grately recived!

Gx

 

Firstly no lace up work boot will let water through the eyelets to the client, a real work boot has a bellows tongue to stop water and anything else getting in, please review the boots yourself and you will see this.

In-fact the elastic sided boot(riggers boots) will allow a lot of water to enter through the open weave of the gusset elastic, maybe not while they are new but give it a month or two.

As for any evidence of the lack of support, l cant show you any, none at all, but have always argued that the pull on boot(riggers boots) should never have been allowed to be classed as a safety boot, you might as well wear a steel cap moccasin for the amount of support they give.

Do your own work trial.
Have you tried walking across the work site in both types of boots yourself, with two buckets of water for fun, you will be more stable in the lace up and the neat fit around the ankle will not allow water to enter, can you say the same for the riggers boot?

Good luck with your work trial