Editor’s Note: WP155 is a complex paper that addresses a number of subject items. It has been edited in order to focus on the actual IFATCA Policy area that has been changed.

The IFATCA Manual consists of several Policies and Guidance Material relating to, or based on, knowledge in Human Factors. IFATCA has noticed an increased interest among scientists for making Human Factor studies on the effects on workers who are exposed to complex working environments, including cognitive tasks, high degrees of precision, and 24 hour shift work. All this fits into a general description of the challenges that controller’s worldwide face on a daily basis. With increased scientific evidence relevant to the controller tasks, the 1998 Toulouse Conference wanted SC4`s working program to include a search for more information to support existing policy, and to create new policy where needed.

SC4 has approached this task in the following way. We have identified the existing policies that are based on knowledge in Human Factors, have searched for relevant information, and have discussed the need for revision and creation of new policy.

With the increased need for automation, traffic growth and 24 hour use of the aviation industry, strain particularly on older controllers is increasing. A Norwegian study on stress, vision, night vision, short term memory and simultaneous capacity between young and old controllers, (Bjørklund, Rodal, Mundal and Årva 1998) concludes there are significant differences in night vision, short-time memory and simultaneous-capacity between controllers aged 40 and below, compared to controllers aged 60 and above. The degrading of these abilities escalates more rapidly after passing 50 years than between 40 and 50 years of age. This is strong support to existing IFATCA Policy (page 4.1.5.1), and indicates that age of retirement for active controllers should be closer to 50 than 55 years.

Scientific evidence concludes there are significant differences in night vision, short-time memory and simultaneous-capacity between controllers aged 40 and below, compared to controllers aged 60 and above, and the degrading of these abilities escalates more rapidly after passing 50 years than between 40 and 50 years of age.

Amend paragraph 5.1.4 on Page 4151 to read:

“IFATCA recommends that for active air traffic controllers the age of retirement should be closer to 50 than 55.”

Senior advisor in Aviation Medicine, Grete Myhre, Norway 1998.

Professor Dr. MD Per Årva, head of Norwegian Aviation Medicine Institute, 1998.

Scheme for regulation of the hours of civil air traffic controllers in the United Kingdom, Consultation Document for a review of existing regulation, 1998.

Study on Norwegian Controllers on stress, vision, night vision, short time memory and simultaneous capacity between young and old controllers. Bjørklund, Rodal, Mundal and Årva, 1998.

Endsley and Rogers: Distribution of attention, situation awareness, and workload in a passive air traffic control task: Implications for operational errors and automation, 1997).

The European Union Commissions White Paper (COM (97) 334 final), 1997.

The European Unions Directive on working time: Sectors and activities excluded from the Working Time Directive, November 1998.

Making shift work tolerable, T. Monk and S. Folkard (1990).

Sleep/Wake Disorders, (Guilleminault and Lugaresi, 1983).

Resetting Circadian Clocks. Applications to Sleep Disorders medicine and Occupational Health, Czeisler, Moore-Ede and Coleman, 1983.

Stress Research Reports, Working Hours, Health and Safety, Torbjørn Åkerstedt, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 1997.