ASTTBC PPE cheat sheet

A registrant may practise only within the scope of competence defined by education, training, and supervised experience; new task areas require supervision or additional qualification first.

The engineer of record holds final responsibility for design decisions; delegation of drafting or calculation does not transfer accountability for the sealed work.

A documented field review or design review must be completed before issuing a sealed drawing; verbal sign-off alone is insufficient evidence of review.

Continuing competence is demonstrated by a dated record of professional development activities, retained for the audit period set by the regulator.

Conflicts between client instructions and technical standards are resolved by written notice to the client; the standard governs until the client issues a written direction accepting documented risk.

A professional opinion offered in a dispute must disclose the basis, assumptions, and any limitation on the scope of the investigation.

Signing and sealing certifies that the work was prepared by, or directly supervised by, the seal holder, not that the work is free of all risk.

When assuming responsibility for another practitioner's prior work, verify the design basis independently; a review limited to format compliance does not constitute assumption of responsibility.

Duty of loyalty runs to the public interest first, then to the client, then to the employer; where these conflict, public safety governs disclosure decisions.

Confidential client information may be released without consent only where required by law, by a court order, or to prevent a clear risk to life safety.

A conflict of interest exists where a personal financial interest could reasonably be seen to influence judgment; disclose in writing and withdraw if the conflict cannot be managed.

Accepting compensation from both a supplier and a client for the same project is prohibited without full written disclosure and consent from all parties.

Advertising and competitive proposals must not misrepresent qualifications, and must not be based on a fee that compromises the technical adequacy of the work.

Practitioners must report to the regulator, in writing, within the period set by the Act, any judgment, conviction, or disciplinary finding that bears on fitness to practise.

Criticizing another practitioner's work publicly requires a factual, technically supported basis; unsupported disparagement is a disciplinary matter.

Regulatory obligations under the governing Act prevail over an employment contract clause that would require a registrant to conceal a safety non-compliance.

Stress equals force divided by cross-sectional area; strain equals change in length divided by original length; the ratio of the two is Young's modulus.

Factor of safety equals ultimate or yield strength divided by the allowable working stress; a higher factor is required where loads are uncertain or consequences of failure are severe.

Beam deflection scales with load times span cubed divided by the product of modulus and moment of inertia, so doubling span increases deflection about eightfold for the same load.

Thermal expansion equals the coefficient of linear expansion times original length times temperature change; restrained expansion generates stress equal to modulus times strain.

Ohm's law relates voltage, current, and resistance; power in a resistive circuit equals voltage times current, or current squared times resistance.

Flow rate in a pipe equals cross-sectional area times velocity; a reduction in diameter raises velocity by the square of the diameter ratio for constant flow.

Units must be carried through every calculation; convert to a consistent base set before computing and state the unit of the final result.

Measurement uncertainty is reported with the result, combining instrument accuracy, resolution, and repeatability, and the reported value is rounded to match that uncertainty.

A sealed drawing carries the practitioner's name, seal, date, and revision identifier; superseded revisions are marked void rather than deleted from the record.

Design calculations record the design basis, code edition, load cases, assumptions, and references so an independent reviewer can reproduce the result.

Site instructions issued verbally must be confirmed in writing within the period set by the contract to be enforceable and to create a retrievable record.

Change orders identify the scope change, the technical justification, the cost and schedule effect, and the approving authority before work proceeds.

Records are retained for the period required by the regulator or the contract, whichever is longer, and remain legible and retrievable for the whole period.

Technical reports separate observation from interpretation; conclusions are traceable to stated evidence, and limitations of the investigation are stated explicitly.

Electronic signatures carry the same legal weight as handwritten seals where the identity of the signer is authenticated and the document is locked against alteration.

Correspondence on a dispute is treated as potentially disclosable; write factual, dated, and technical content rather than opinion or speculation.

Hierarchy of controls, in descending effectiveness: eliminate the hazard, substitute, engineer the control, administer the procedure, then rely on personal protective equipment.

A hazard assessment identifies the task, the hazards, the likelihood and severity of harm, and the controls applied; it is reviewed when the task, equipment, or crew changes.

Lockout and tagout requires isolation of all energy sources, verification of zero energy state by test, and removal of locks only by the person who applied them.

Fall protection is required where a worker can fall from a height set by the applicable regulation; guardrails, travel restraint, and fall arrest are ranked in that order.

Confined space entry requires pre-entry atmospheric testing for oxygen, flammability, and toxicity, a written entry permit, an attendant, and a rescue plan.

Incident investigation establishes the sequence of events and the contributing causes; the purpose is prevention, and the report is kept separate from disciplinary action.

Emergency response plans state evacuation routes, assembly points, alarm signals, and the designated warden for each area, and are exercised on a set schedule.

Personal protective equipment is the last line of defence because its effectiveness depends on correct selection, fit, and consistent use by the worker.

Life-cycle assessment totals impacts from material extraction through manufacture, use, and end of life; comparing options on construction cost alone omits most of the impact.

Embodied carbon is reported per functional unit and per declared unit; comparisons are valid only where system boundaries and service life assumptions match.

Sustainable design decisions are documented with the criteria applied, so that a claim of improved performance can be audited against the design basis.

Public protection requires that a structure or system fail safely, with warning and without progressive collapse, where a single element is lost.

Environmental site assessment follows a phased approach: records review and site visit first, sampling and analysis only where the initial phase identifies a potential contaminant.

Contaminated soil or groundwater discovered during work triggers a stop, notification to the owner and regulator, and containment until a remediation plan is approved.

Resilience planning considers the design event return period, redundancy of critical services, and access for emergency response after the event.

Greenwashing risk is managed by substantiating every environmental claim with a traceable calculation, standard, or third-party certification reference.

A permit to practise is issued by the regulator and is distinct from a business licence or a municipal building permit; each is obtained separately.

An unauthorized practice complaint is investigated by the regulator's inquiry committee, which may dismiss, caution, or refer the matter to a discipline hearing.

Discipline penalties range from a reprimand through conditions on practice, suspension, to revocation, and are published where the Act requires publication.

A registrant must respond to a regulator's written inquiry within the stated period; failure to respond is itself a ground for disciplinary action.

Practice review audits examine a sample of a registrant's sealed work for compliance with standards; the findings are used for improvement and for enforcement where warranted.

Title protection means only registrants may use the reserved designation; a non-registrant using the title commits an offence under the Act.

A cease-and-desist order may be issued where work presents an immediate risk to public safety, and takes effect before a hearing is held.

Registrants must keep the regulator informed of a change of address, employer, or practice status within the period prescribed by the bylaws.

A quality management system defines the check, verify, and approve steps for each deliverable, and records who performed each step and when.

Independent check means the checker did not prepare the work; self-checking a calculation does not satisfy the verification requirement.

Design change control requires that a change be logged, assessed for effect on interfacing disciplines, approved, and reflected in every affected document.

A request for information is answered in writing and the answer becomes part of the contract record; unresolved requests are tracked to closure.

The critical path is the longest duration path through the network; any delay on that path delays project completion unless the path changes.

Earned value compares planned value, earned value, and actual cost; a cost performance index below one indicates cost overrun.

Commissioning verifies that installed systems perform to the design intent, and its records form part of the handover documentation.

As-built records reflect the installed condition, not the design intent, and are issued at substantial completion with the operating and maintenance manuals.