THE NEW Larnaca airport has an insufficient air supply and fosters bacteria cultures in some of its air ducts, according to a study conducted by Monimax, a private company specialising workspace air quality.
The company was hired to carry out the survey after airport staff complained of respiratory problems and of feeling faint.
According to the Director of the Civil Aviation. Leonidas Leonidou, members of staff exhibited symptoms such as dizziness, nausea and a general discomfort during working hours.
“For this reason, the Civil Aviation Authority, in order to satisfy the requests of its employees, hired a private company that was actually chosen by the airport’s staff, to carry out an independent survey of the airport’s air quality,” Leonidou said.
The results of the survey found two major problems in the structure of the airport’s Civil Aviation offices, according to a Monimax representative. “First, the structure of the ventilation system was not designed for conditions such as those that exist now in the Civil Aviation offices. There are more people per office than first calculated. Furthermore, there is a bacterial load in the air ducts, which need to be disinfected,” he said.
According to an article in Politis, other problems include temperatures being higher than the acceptable range of 19-24 degrees Celsius, a great concentration of carbon dioxide in certain areas and an increased concentration of ammonia.
The press spokesman for Hermes Airports, Adamos Aspris, however, said that Hermes Airports was already in the process of re-stabilising the ventilation system in the airport’s Civil Aviation Authority offices.
“The complaints by members of the Civil Aviation staff at the airport came to our attention earlier in the summer, and immediately Hermes Airports appointed a Greek company to carry out a study of the workspace’s atmosphere, the results of which were almost exactly the same as Monimax’s,” Aspris said.
He also added that Hermes Airports started working on ameliorating air quality and the ventilation system on July 20, some days after the Civil Aviation had hired another company to take samples of the work environment.
“The process of fixing the problem is now in its final stage, and when it is over, Hermes Airports will conduct yet more research in order to make sure that the problem has been eradicated. If not, then further action will be taken,” Aspris added.
Aspris also reassured the public that these problems did not affect the entire airport, and that the public was in no danger whatsoever.
Yesterday, Civil Aviation employees met and gave Hermes Airports until the September 3 to fix the ventilation system. “We will remain in our offices, on condition that windows will be constructed so that air comes in. If this does not happen, as of September 13, we will stop working in the problematic offices,” said Christakis Solomou, President of the Civil Aviation Employees in the Larnaca and Paphos airports.
