WHS and Environmental Sustainability
Work health and safety
Know the hierarchy of risk control, in order: eliminate the hazard, substitute, use engineering controls, use administrative controls, then personal protective equipment. PPE is the last line of defence, not the first. Understand the risk management process: identify hazards, assess risk (likelihood × consequence), control, monitor, and review. Know the duty of care owed by persons conducting a business or undertaking to workers and others, and the worker's duty to follow instructions and report hazards. Know consultation requirements and the role of health and safety representatives.
Know common workshop hazards: moving machinery and entanglement, noise, dust (silica, wood dust), fumes, electricity, manual handling, and hazardous substances. Know the controls for each: machine guarding, extraction, isolation and lockout, ventilation, and correct manual handling technique.
Environmental sustainability
Understand resource use, waste minimisation (avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose), energy efficiency, water use, emissions, and lifecycle thinking. Know that environmental legislation imposes duties on businesses, and that an environmental management system provides a structured approach.
Traps
Students list PPE first. Students describe a hazard without a control, or a control without the hazard it addresses. Students treat sustainability as only recycling.
Rule of thumb
Always write the hazard–risk–control triplet, and place the control correctly in the hierarchy. "Wood dust (hazard) causes respiratory disease (risk); local exhaust extraction is an engineering control, preferred over a dust mask (PPE)."