Chapter – 8
Airport House Keeping
Overview
Good housekeeping is important for everyone’s safety. Safety at the workplace can be maintained when the workplace is neat, clean, and orderly with fewer possibilities of accidents and hazards. Good housekeeping habits help in eliminating hazards.
This lesson emphasizes the need and importance of good housekeeping in an airport and also provides an insight into good housekeeping responsibilities and practices, Good housekeeping is the foundation of an effective accident prevention program, which helps in identifying and eliminating housekeeping hazards. Let us take a look at this topic in detail.
Benefits of Good Housekeeping
A clean, neat and orderly workplace is a safe workplace. Housekeeping services are designed to improve the indoor environment in the workplace, but they can also degrade it if not performed properly.
Good housekeeping provides the following benefits:
Costs of Poor Housekeeping
Accidents caused by poor housekeeping practices have often endangered lives or caused damage to life and property.
The most common hazards of poor housekeeping are:
Developing Good Housekeeping
Good housekeeping habits protect one from injuries on the job. Therefore good housekeeping habits must be developed by:
In order to remove hazards before starting work the following precaution must be taken:
Preventing slips requires a little time and effort, along with a strong will to go that extra mils, as it may prevent accidents and injuries to someone around you. It is important to report the problem immediately and place a barrier around the affected area in case one cannot handle the slip.
Special training and equipment are required to clean up hazardous chemical spills. Clean up spills of water, oil, or other liquids use paper towels for water use special absorbent wipes for oil and other chemicals. Plastic on a concrete floor can be very hazardous and must be removed immediately. Some granular particles can act just like liquid spills on the floor and cause a slip and fall. Slip-resistant shoes help prevent a fall on a slippery surface.
Fire Prevention
Good housekeeping helps in preventing fires. The housekeeping practices required to prevent fire are:
Approved flammable liquid containers prevent igniting the liquids stored in them by ignition sources. Reactive materials produce a lot of heat when mixed. This could cause reactive materials to spontaneously combust. These materials must be stored separately. Combustibles such as paper, cardboard, wooden pallets, or rags should not be accumulated as a fire can start and spread rapidly. They must be placed away from ignition sources. To prevent fires, it is important to keep combustible materials such as dust and grease away from electrical equipment and hot machinery.
Housekeeping Program
A housekeeping program is designed to clean the environment and maintain the safety and health of people where the program is carried out. It is more than just a cleaning program that involves:
Actions taken to prevent dirt from entering the environment and its removal if dirt is present
Choices of products and methods that minimize the introduction of contaminants into the environment
Tasks designed for health, safety and appearance
Training, negotiating, and monitoring performance
A standard cleaning program is slightly different from a housekeeping program designed to improve Internal Air Quality (IAQ).
IAO Housekeeping Program
Elements of an IAQ housekeeping program can increase or decrease Costs of the program. However, the costs of an IAQ housekeeping program are likely to be lower than any standard cleaning program for many reasons.
The IAQ program:
Housekeeping programs are based on a set of principles. These principles define the way in which the housekeeping programs are structured and managed to make a difference in the indoor environment.
The principles for cleaning include:
Dirt, film, grime and other contaminants that can’t be seen should be cleaned regularly. They will otherwise tend to lower indoor air quality all over the building.
Protections include providing:
Cleaning personnel, occupants, and contractors should participate in the development, implementation, and refinement of the program. Occupants should understand how their actions, such as generating food debris, impact the indoor environment and the cleaning process.
Cleaning personnel should be well trained. Equipment should be capable of performing the tasks that protects the indoor environment. It is important to properly handle and disposal of medical waste according to applicable codes and regulations. Regulations governing handle the disposal of non-medical hazardous materials such as chemical cleaners should also be followed.
Elements of a Housekeeping Program
A housekeeping program is a process involving more than just cleaning the building. Elements of the house keeping program are:
Methods to Clean Indoor Air Quality
The following methods can be used to maintain clean indoor air quality and keep dirt out:
Barrier mats are designed to trap dirt and keep it out of the building. Barrier mats should be long enough so that everyone entering the building should take at least five full steps on the mat.
Use Maximum Extractions, Minimum Polluting Equipments and Methods
Maximum Extraction, Minimum Polluting equipments and methods can be used to maintain clean indoor air quality.
Choose Low Polluting Products
The choice of materials and methods is crucial to indoor Air Quality (LAQ), as housekeeping both cleans and has the potentials to pollute the indoor environment.
Therefore one can use low-polluting products such as:
One can minimize the use of the following products:
One must:
One can follow the protocol for storing any chemical product in room or closet exhausted to the outside and under negative pressure, with no opening to the return air plenum. Wet or damp materials are breeding ground for mold.
Training Housekeeping Personnel
Training must be imparted to all housekeeping personnel before they are required to participate in the house keeping and cleaning program
Training should include:
Monitoring Results
It is important to monitor the results of housekeeping tasks. This is to ensure that the building is kept clean, Deviations from good practices must not be accepted.
The following elements must be monitored:
Establishing a Housekeeping Program
Survey of the Building of Cleaning
A cleaning survey involves and assessment of:
Example:
Establish Areas Requiring Differential Attention
The survey can be used to assess ways to prevent dirt and pollution from entering the building space.
The survey then helps assess differential cleaning needs required by each part of the building. Areas requiring differential attentions will include:
SUMMARY