LTB 384/17 Hot MDF Areas in Telephone Exchanges

No. 384/2017

4 July 2017

Our Ref: NS30/17

Hot MDF Areas in Telephone Exchanges

To: All Branches with Members in BT

Dear Colleagues,

Following representations from Branches about hot temperatures in the MDF area of a telephone exchange the BT Committee Health and Safety team reproduced below the current guidance from Openreach.

“The MDF area of a telephone exchange can be a very warm place to work due to a number of factors such as thermal gain through windows and fabric of the building, windows being locked or barred for security reasons or the increasing presence of LLU and other exchange equipment in the immediate area of the MDF, all of which generate heat.

The legal regulation that covers temperatures in the workplace is published by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and is The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (free PDF download). Regulation 7 (temperature in indoor workplaces) paragraph 43 states a minimum temperature of 16C but does not state a maximum working temperature, paragraph 46 continues “Where the temperature in a workroom would otherwise be uncomfortably high, for example because of hot processes or the design of the building, all reasonable steps should be taken to achieve a reasonably comfortable temperature…”

So what is uncomfortably high?

From the HSE guidance on temperature FAQs: What is the minimum / maximum temperature in the workplace?

HSE previously defined thermal comfort in the workplace, as: ‘An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13C (56F) and 30C (86F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end.’

Where temperatures have been measured to be in excess of the agreed thermal comfort levels, TSO will provide cooling plant to reduce the on-site temperature to the thermal comfort levels. This process is covered in ISIS BES/VAC/A001 Annex 7.

The ISIS provides a stage by stage guide as to how the issue is reported, how it is subsequently investigated and monitored, whilst either existing cooling provision is repaired / adjusted to deliver attendance mode cooling parameters. In the event of the Power field engineering identifying that cooling provision is insufficient to provide equipment cooling and maintain temperature below the HSE thermal comfort threshold, Power Planning will be engaged to re-dimension the cooling and ventilation provision. All Standalone MDF areas will be deemed as passive and if there is a need for cooling/ventilation, a joint agreement between Openreach and the TSO cooling policy team should conclude the responsibility of any cooling/ventilation required.

High temperatures in MDF areas should be reported in the first instance to the frames manager who will evaluate the site and introduce local self-help measures where appropriate, for example:

Clothing: – Engineers should be instructed to wear lighter-weight garments, with a two-piece (shirt and trousers) preferred to coveralls. Short-sleeved shirts or shorts can be worn, according to personal preference, although not essential.
Provision of fans: – The use of fans creates air movement rather than reduces the air temperature. Air passing over the skindoes create a chilling effect to the body. Fans can be ordered through the e-build process via the BT Property website.
Drinking water: – Engineers should be encouraged to drink plenty of water. It is not necessary for this to be chilled, although cooling it might make it subjectively more appealing. The essential feature is the replenishment of body fluid balance rather than obtaining any direct cooling benefit. Direct mains water is perfectly acceptable for this. There is no need for the use of salt replacement drinks, isotonic drinks, salt tablets or any other such items. The normal diet usually includes an excess of salt and daily replacement in food will suffice. Exceptions might occur with individuals who are on a low-salt diet or have fluid balance problems (e.g. kidney illness). The latest policy is that people should wherever possible use drinking water from a tap. If the nearest drinking water tap is, say, 3 floors away then the manager may wish to make a business case for his GM to sign off on the basis that it is cheaper to buy the water than walk 3 flights of stairs x number of times a day.
Non-jumpering activities: – Not all activities involved with jumpering tasks need to be carried out in the frame room. Engineers should be encouraged to undertake CSS / Work Manager activities away from hot areas and all breaks should be taken away from the heat of the workplace
Cool havens / workstations: – Where possible, relocating the workstation of frames engineers to a cooler area should be considered. This could be an empty office or area of the frame room where there may be some air movement. The provision of office screens or dividers may assist in creating a cool haven in which a fan could be provided to create a more comfortable area for engineers to download and pick up their work.

Following implementation of self-help, the frames manager should access WEMS (using the WEMS self-help guidance document) to determine whether the MDF area has exceeded the agreed threshold (30C for at least 7 days in a calendar month). If WEMS has not been installed in the MDF area, an Openreach temperature logger must be requested from Jacinda.Roberts@openreach.co.uk.

Having obtained a recent temperature history, if a threshold of 30C is exceeded for at least 7 days in a calendar month, the problem should be reported to TSO by the frames manager through the TSO Heating & Lighting Fault Reporting Tool. At the TSO tool home page select Add Fault Report’ and Heating / Lighting’ from the drop-down menu. On the next page, input your EIN/UIN and the 1141 code or (part) name of the exchange for which you are reporting the fault. Wait for the system to display the exchange list once your input has been matched and select the correct exchange name from the drop-down list. When the fault report form is displayed, set the (fault) Type’ as Heating’ and set the Additional info’ as Hot MDF’ (note this input should be made by frames managers only), input the Room’ as MDF’. Set the Health/Safety’ flag set as Yes’ with a Reason’ of temperatures exceeding 30 degrees’. Complete the other fields as required adding as many Details as possible including the number of people affected and the average total number of weekly man hours spent on the MDF.

TSO will investigate the problem at the site for faulty air handling units and cooling capacity issues. Where the problem is projected as taking more than 30 days to resolve, the process allows for temporary cooling to be provided by TSO. This is done on a site-by-site basis dependent on continuing excessive temperatures.

Full details of the Hot MDFs process can be found in the ISIS BES/VAC/A001 Annex 7 and Site Status Report for Hot MDF Areas.

Reporting a Cold MDF is similar to the process for Hot MDFs:

You will need evidence of temperatures lower than the threshold of 16C in order to report as a Cold fault in the MDF area. As with Hot MDFs, please use the WEMS site to determine if there is on-line evidence of low threshold temperatures.

When you have the appropriate evidence, report it on the Heating & Lighting Fault Reporting Tool. Report as a Heating’ fault selecting Cold MDF’ in the additional info field. If the exchange is registered as having wet-heating’ you will be told on-screen that you need instead to report the problem to the BTFS Help Desk (the phone number will be displayed). For Cold MDFs, wet-heating faults go to BTFS, electrical heating faults go to TSO. If you find that a Cold MDF repo
rt is refused by both TSO and BTFS, please escalate by sending an e-mail with full details of the site and the problem to harold.benney@openreach.co.uk

If temperatures are below 16C and the wet-heating has been removed at some time in the past and not replaced, the fault should first be reported in the normal way.

The above information can be found here: https://hr.bt.com/en-gb/hr-in-bt/line-of-business-hr/openreach/safety-direct/hot-mdfs

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer