Page 12 - Occupational Health & Safety, February 2018

INDUSTRY UPDATE
minimize risk before, during, and after these devastating incidents.”
Efforts to establish this standard began in October 2016 in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting, which was the dead- liest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history at the time. NFPA 3000 was opened for input until Feb. 23, 2018.
Airbus Buys Colorado
Training Center
Airbus announced it has acquired the Stra- tegic Simulation Solutions flight training center in Aurora, Colo. Airbus’ announce- ment said the company plans to at least double capacity in the next few years. “This is another major step forward in our am- bition to grow services around the world,” said Laurent Martinez, Head of Services by Airbus. “Our Global Services Forecast pre- dicts a need for 122,000 new pilots in the Americas by 2035, representing 23 percent of the world’s demand. We want our Airbus flight training facilities to be easily acces- sible to our customers regardless of their location, hence this latest move.”
Before this acquisition, Airbus provid- ed training to the North American region primarily from its Miami training center. The addition of the new Aurora training center will help meet long-term growth in expanding markets throughout the Ameri- cas; the manufacturer had added training centers in Mexico City and in Campinas, Brazil, in the past two years, and its world- wide training network has grown from five locations in 2015 to 17 locations today.
“We will hold steady in our ambition to provide the most state-of-the-art, top- quality training to our customers and to continue expanding our global training capacity at its current pace,” Martinez said.
“Currently,” the company sad, “the Au- rora training center has two A320 Family, FAA Level D full flight simulators—the highest-level flight simulators—for train- ing of Frontier Airlines pilots on the air- line’s all-Airbus fleet. Additional simulators will be added at the Aurora facility in 2018 to address anticipated increased demand for training. Additionally, Airbus’ innova- tive ACT Suite—a fully comprehensive, high-fidelity course for maintenance train- ing can also be set up within a week’s notice and will be offered in line with demand. Airbus’ modular, competency-based train- ing services deliver a comprehensive mix of
theoretical courses, hands-on practice and environment immersion using the latest technologies—including virtual, augment- ed and mixed reality.”
IOSH Offers Guidance on Construction Nanomaterials
IOSH, the Institution of Occupational Safe- ty and Health, posted a research report and new guidance in January 2018 on the use of nanomaterials in construction. The report discusses self-cleaning windows, very high- strength concrete, and super-efficient insu- lation as three examples of new building materials with properties made possible by nanotechnologies; the researchers estimate by 2025 up to half of new building materi- als might contain nanomaterials.
The description of self-cleaning glass says it has a film of nanoscale titanium di- oxide that breaks down dirt through inter- action with sunlight to form debris that is washed away by rainwater, adding that this is now widely used in conservatory roofs and in windows not easily accessible—the guidance document says the roof of Lon- don’s St Pancras station reportedly is con- structed with self-cleaning glass.
The documents say nanomaterials are hard to identify in construction materials because they are rarely precisely labeled, and a product labeled “nano” might con- tain nanoparticles or nanofibers, might be based on nanoscale film, or may be labeled that way to make it seem new and different.
The guidance document contains a flow chart for assessing the risk of nano-enabled construction products. It recommends ask- ing questions of suppliers about new ma- terials with novel properties, balancing the risk and benefit during the design stage of a project, recording where nanomaterials are, and using standard risk control mea- sures for nanomaterial-based products.
A research team at Loughborough University sponsored by IOSH produced the guidance. The project was led by Prof. Alistair Gibb and Dr. Wendy Jones, both from Loughborough University.
“With this research, we aimed to get a clearer picture of the current status of nanomaterials used in the construction industry and to bring this information to relevant audiences in a practical way. We also hoped to debunk some controversy and misunderstanding about nanoma- terials and their risks,” Jones said. “We
researched what information is known al- ready and sought to pull together materials that would otherwise be inaccessible. We describe the nanofilms used for some win- dow glass, silica aerogels used in insulation, nanosilicas used in concrete and coatings, which are the most numerous and readily available nanoscale products in construc- tion. The team found that nanomaterials are used primarily in surface coatings, con- crete, window glass, insulation, and steel in different ways and to differing extents. Some nanomaterials, such as certain types of carbon nanotube, are reported as poten- tially harmful, but these do not currently seem to be in common usage in the UK.
“In terms of risk, even problematic nanomaterials such as long, straight [car- bon nanotubes] will not be hazardous as long as they are embedded in a solid, stable structure. Risk only arises if workers are exposed to certain nanoparticles or nano- fibers in the form of dusts or aerosols; this might occur during construction or demo- lition activities,” she added.
Mergers & Acquisitions
■ Xylem Inc. (Rye Brook, N.Y., www.xy- lem.com), a global water technology com- pany, announced it has agreed to acquire Pure Technologies Ltd. of Calgary, Canada, for $397 million, and that Pure Technolo- gies’ board of directors had unanimously approved the transaction. Pure Technol- ogies provides diagnostic and analytics solutions and services to address water and wastewater infrastructure challenges and is a leader in intelligent leak detection.
“The addition of Pure will strengthen Xylem’s position as a leading provider of intelligent solutions that address the water industry’s most persistent problems,” said Patrick Decker, Xylem’s president and CEO. “Aging infrastructure is a top concern of water utilities around the world, and infra- structure assessment is an attractive, grow- ing market that directly addresses this chal- lenge in a cost-effective way. Pure’s solutions strongly complement the broader Xylem portfolio, particularly our recently acquired Visenti and Sensus solutions, creating a unique and disruptive platform of diagnos- tic, analytics, and optimization solutions for clean and wastewater networks.”
10 Occupational Health & Safety | FEBRUARY 2018
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