The Crossrail project is the largest civil engineering project in the UK and the largest single addition to the London transport network for over 50 years. Its approach to health and safety management strives to be world class and head and shoulders above other major construction projects. It has actively sought specialist partners to assist in its health and safety success and Sypol is a major player in this arena showcasing excellence in occupational health management. Sypol has provided guidance to designers on occupational health, developed strategies and provided interactive guidance packages to provide cutting edge, practical advice.
Sypol has worked with leading construction companies for over 30 years and has proven to be ahead of the game in this arena, particularly with occupational health. A good holistic occupational health programme should include not only clinical support in the form of OH doctors and nurses but also occupational ill health prevention strategies. Crossrail has recognised that in order to protect employees from occupational health risks you need to focus on the workplace as well as the worker. Sypol is in the business of ill health prevention by providing occupational hygiene advice to employers and workers affected at the sharp end.
Occupational diseases such as asthma, dermatitis, tinnitus and vibration white finger can devastate sufferers, not only in the workplace but at home as well. The dangers are not often immediately apparent and so disease creeps up on its victims until the harm, often irreversible, has been done. Currently more than 1.2 million people suffer from occupational ill health in the UK and of the 29.3 million working days lost due to occupational ill health last year, more than two thirds was due to occupational ill health rather than accidents.
Choosing Sypol
Health and safety management just doesn’t work when it’s an afterthought and construction is under way. To be truly effective health and safety measures need to be at the very core of a project, and this starts with an enlightened client and competent designers. Crossrail called upon Sypol to design and deliver workshops for its design teams to fully support them through the process of design risk assessments. To enhance this support from Sypol, the OH team was asked to develop an interactive occupational health guide for designers.
The designers' guide consists of three sections, all of which contain information relevant to designers to meet their specific needs. The first section is a ‘quick guide’ that immediately focuses the readers’ attention on essential information regarding legislative duties; construction-specific health risks and industry best practice for preventing or reducing exposures. The second section is a ‘toolkit’, again focusing on tools for designers. Some examples are the inclusion of RAG (red, amber, and green) lists; Health and Safety Executive management steps for designers; and access to CMS from Sypol. Thirdly, the guide includes additional information that provides all the background information that a designer’s enquiring mind would need to gain thorough knowledge of the key issues.
Crossrail's health safety and environment standard sets as a benchmark the need to “Set standards for occupational health performance that reduce health risks and promote a healthy working environment” and Sypol is proud to be working with them toward this goal.