Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/351674
14 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com processes and procedures around who has the right-of-way, who has clearances and all the train- ing and awareness that goes with that," he says. Any employee who is driving a vehicle on the apron needs to receive an Airside Vehicle Operator Permit, which trains the workers on all pos- sible hazards and includes a practical test that gives them the licence to drive out there. EXPOSURE TO JET BLAST Driver training also extensively covers jet blast. "If you're driving a vehicle or walk- ing in that area, you never go behind an aircraft that has their engines run- ning," says Rantala. "If you don't know about jet blast, you may not recognize it and it can cause signifi cant damage for sure." Jet blast is something VAA discusses ad nauseum with existing and new employees, says Strand. "When an airplane takes off or turns, there's hurricane-level wind force… It has even been known to topple vehi- cles," he says. "And if there are any artifacts or items that get blown up, they become a signifi cant hazard." Every year, the VAA conducts a for- eign object debris walk. Employees gather one morning at 4:30 a.m. to walk the airfi eld and aircraft movement areas to collect garbage or loose debris that could be picked up by an aircraft. CONSTRUCTION HAZARDS Nearly all major airports across Canada are undergoing construction. This poses a safety concern for the public and workers because airports still need to be open during the con- struction process. According to the union, many of these construction projects do not take the health and safety of the airport workers into consideration. During the actual building process, there have been multiple examples where debris has fallen through the roof and landed near workers and passengers, says Clark. He recommends a more collabora- tive approach between the provincially regulated contractors and the federally regulated airport authorities. "(Airport authority) heath and safety inspections have to actually go into these work sites also because they have an affect on airport workers," he says. "Just because they fence it off, it does not create it as a new property; it's still a part of the same working environment." Even during the design phase, con- tractors are not thinking about how airport workers will use the spaces after construction, says Clark. For example, the Vancouver airport is ret- rofi tting a $65-million baggage system into an already established building and some areas of the system are only four feet high. This means some workers need to climb under, over or around equipment to do their jobs. "They are bumping their heads, so we've put foam on almost every pos- sible thing, because it's constructed by people who are not actually using it and they're not actually building it ergonomically," says Clark. FRONT-LINE WORKERS Airport authorities have front-line workers, such as terminal duty offi cers and customer service employees. With an average of seven million passen- gers travelling through Canada's top 16 busiest airports last year, front-line workers need to be prepared to deal with the public. These workers need to be particu- larly aware of potential heath issues. When the SARS crisis happened in 2003, for example, some airport work- ers felt the masks they were given were inadequate and they had not received enough information about the pan- demic, says Fidler. "You have to inform employees of all the hazards in the workplace, including potential or real hazards, and a lot of employers don't do that," he says. "Sometimes all it takes is a safety committee meeting or an email to do that. And if there is a hazard, an employer has to deal with it, and if it requires PPE, it has to provide it and train employees on how to use it." Front-line workers are also suscepti- ble to workplace violence, as they often have to deal with angry passengers. In May 2008 the federal government implemented Violence Prevention in the Work Place Regulations. All fed- erally regulated employers, including airports, are now required to take measures to eliminate violent acts toward employees. "They have to be trained in violence prevention measures, how to de-esca- late. You've got to be able to say 'OK, Jim, calm down, I know you're upset.' They have to be trained in how to do it," says Fidler. Workers at HIAA are trained on when to call the on-site RCMP to step in. FALL HAZARDS All airport authorities face fall hazards, such as when workers are conducting maintenance on roofs, lights, cameras or the automated bridges that connect aircrafts to the terminal buildings. The workers in Vancouver face a par- ticular risk because the airport is on an island and has runway lighting piers that extend into the water. "Employees need to go out and maintain the lights and infrastruc- ture on these piers, so a fall hazard exists (because) the employees could fall into the water and the marsh, and a possible drowning hazard exists," says Strand. SECURITY ISSUES Working in an airport means employ- ees need to be aware of potential security risks. The HIAA, which has 180 workers, has an "eye watch" pro- gram where workers are encouraged to call a number to report anything suspicious, such as an unattended bag, says Rantala. All workers also receive a half-day security training session that covers the various security concerns present at an airport. Airport authority workers have spe- cial badging that indicates what areas of the airport they can access. If they are going post-security, they undergo similar screening as passengers, and they are subject to random searches as well, says Strand. GETTING WORKERS ON BOARD VAA's most common injuries are related to the back. To combat this, back injuries were the focus of its annual president's award in 2013. The award recognizes two high-risk and two low-risk teams that have implemented excellent and innova- tive safety plans. "(Back injuries) cut across the entire company — if you're lifting a big stack of paper or lifting a piece of equip- ment, your back is really important," says Richmond. "People are thinking 'How can I put in a good program that actually makes people involved?' And there's some competition; (workers) want to win that award." No matter what position they hold — from customer service to mainte- nance — workers at the Vancouver Airport Authority are encouraged to take their time doing their job and make sure they are doing it safely. For example, the Vancouver airport moves almost 100,000 bags on a busy day. When part of the system is down, maintenance workers are under a lot of pressure to get it back up and running. "(They are told to) make sure the part you're working on is locked-out so that it can't possibly get restarted when someone is in there replacing a motor or a belt," says Richmond. "It's a deliberate, very calm, very studied approach and don't let the time pres- sures make you do something stupid. We can hack another two or three min- utes of that belt being down for you to make sure that everything is safe." VAA and HIAA both have non-puni- tive reporting processes in place, where workers are urged to report any health and safety concerns they see. "They can put their hand up and say 'OK, I'm a little bit worried about it, I think we should stop and take a look' or 'That was a close call, I need to report it,' and there is no fear of any discipline," says Richmond. "We don't want anybody ever cutting corners to save time or money." processes and procedures around who has the right-of-way, airport workers into consideration. During the actual building process there have been multiple examples where debris has fallen through the roof and landed near workers tive approach between the provincially regulated contractors and the federally regulated airport authorities. "(Airport authority) heath and