Evaluation of Ventilation in Aircraft Maintenance and Restoration Hangars

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bennett, James S. ; Methner, Mark M.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The Health Hazard Evaluation Program received a request from managers regarding ventilation in four hangars used to maintain, repair, and restore active and historic aircraft. The managers wanted to know if the hangars had areas with little or no airflow that might require exposure controls, and where to sample for air contaminants to evaluate exposures under worst case ventilation conditions. In the two maintenance hangars, air supply and exhaust fans were on opposite walls to produce a cross-flow pattern of air movement. The two restoration hangars each had four window-mounted exhaust fans along the back wall and portable, vertical floor fans. During our visit, no employees were sanding or painting aircraft, but some were inspecting aircraft engines, testing electrical systems, lubricating parts, and inspecting historic aircraft parts. We used a smoke machine to check airflow patterns, measured air speed and direction, and measured pressure differences between the maintenance hangars and surrounding areas. We found (1) some supply and exhaust fans were not on or were not operating according to design specifications, (2) some fans were blocked by equipment, (3) air flowed from maintenance hangars to the outdoors and from offices into the maintenance hangar, and (4) areas around aircraft in the maintenance hangars had little or no air movement. The ventilation systems for these hangars were somewhat effective for climate control but ineffective for air contaminant control. To improve airflow in the hangars, we recommended (1) repairing and adjusting supply and exhaust fans in the maintenance hangars to meet their design specifications, (2) measuring air speeds and flow patterns after fan adjustments or repairs have been made, (3) unblocking exhaust fans, and (4) designing and installing a supply and exhaust style ventilation system for the restoration hangars. We also recommended personal air monitoring after ventilation system changes.
• Subjects:
  Aircraft Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Monitoring Maintenance Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Air-flow Air-monitoring Air-quality-measurement Air-treatment-equipment Aircraft-parts-and-auxiliary-equipment Aircraft Maintenance And Restoration Airflow Measurements Airflow Patterns Equipment-design Equipment-reliability Machine-operation Machine-operators Maintenance-workers National Security Ohio OSHA Region 5 Performance-capability Ventilation-equipment Ventilation-systems

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• Source:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HHE 2014-0067-3243, 2015 Oct ; :1-17
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE201400673243
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  22 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Galloway, Ellen ; Morris, Nichole ; Watts, Shawna
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046908
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2016-100062
• Citation:
  NIOSH [2015]. Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of ventilation in aircraft ; maintenance and restoration hangars. By Methner M, Bennett J. Cincinnati, OH: ; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and ; Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH HHE ; Report No. 2014-0067-3243,
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  928110 - National Security - (NAICS)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0e75baf8fe12008cfa3402c733b8b35ec0f8f375590ededb938a13cb6f13c1839cfdc01bcfaa116e83eb603cfb18b7bcfc856e46eb227bc82af356df2cc304b7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172422/cdc_172422_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.72 MB ]