Lucion is working with The Construction Industry Research and Information Industry Association (CIRIA) and its partners on the development of a new practical and interactive tool to help ground workers and other construction site workers manage asbestos contaminated materials on-site in a safe and efficient manner.

 

The aid will be ‘supported’ by the CIRIA report C765, Asbestos in soil and made ground good practice site guide and other relevant guidance documents to help those who may come into contact with, or are required to manage asbestos in soils, to continue working safely, wherever possible. It should be used alongside more formal guidance documents, tool box training and specialist advice.

The aid is intended to increase efficiency on making decisions when suspected asbestos is unexpectedly encountered in the ground and complement existing organisations’ risk management procedures by providing a useful tool to help ground workers and their supervisors at the initial assessment stage. As with all CIRIA projects, the output will be peer reviewed and promote good practice by also including prompts for actions to achieve proactive management of asbestos in soils before groundworks commence.

Dave Cooper of Lucion said:

“The management of asbestos in soil is a difficult issue and the App itself is not intended to provide a simple answer or an absolute identification by itself.

“However, everyone now carries a smart phone and as a practical and handy first stage tool it will help users to become more aware of asbestos and provide some basic instructions on what to do when they think they have encountered asbestos unexpectedly.

“In this respect the aid will provide good practice advice immediately and signpost the user to relevant and more comprehensive information sources.” 

Joanne Kwan of CIRIA said:

“This project is a natural evolution of CIRIA’s series of projects and activities to promote good practice for managing asbestos from soil. CIRIA report C765 published in early 2017 was CIRIA’s first guidance document to target the many ground workers and other site staff who are on the ‘front line’ when it comes to asbestos from soil.

“By being smart phone based, available in windows, apple and android formats, at normal affordable prices and capable of being used off line, the new app will be readily accessible reaching an even greater number of site workers, who are at risk of disturbing asbestos containing soils, and who require further information as part of being CAR2012 compliant.”