315c - Control of exposure to aircraft emissions at airports

Abstract

Workers at airports may be exposed to the exhaust of both Diesel Engine Emissions (DEE) from a wide variety of equipment, such as ground power units and tow trucks, as well as to Aircraft Engine Exhaust (AEE). Workers on the ramps where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refuelled and boarded may be particularly highly exposed. Particle number concentrations of up to several 100.000/cm3 over several hours and up to several millions/cm3 during short term peaks were measured. Effective control of exposure to AEE is a complex issue. While DEE is a formally WHO IARC-classified carcinogen, for AEE this is less clear, and specific literature is relatively scarce. This affects the extent of employers’ obligations to minimise exposure. Early investigations of the literature show that AEE contain various components that are formally classified carcinogens, in relatively low amounts. This means, that limiting the exposure as much as possible is desirable. Options for control measures include for example the use of electric powered aircraft facilities, implementation of emission-free taxiing (by electric equipment), departure procedures in which the jet stream towards ramp workers is prevented, departure procedures in which the distance between aircraft engines and ramp workers is maximized, and procedures that prevent unnecessarily long running main jet engines close to the gate. Potential divers and bottle-necks for these measures will be presented.