Health, Safety, and Environmental Controls
Beyond falls, advanced candidates must control health, safety, and environmental risks. Health: manual handling of tubes and boards, hand-arm vibration from tools, noise, dust, and hazardous substances. Safety: electrical (overhead lines, 110 V tools), fire (hot works permits, escape routes on scaffolds), and falling objects. Environmental: waste segregation, spill control, protection of ground and watercourses, and control of noise/dust to neighbours. Personal protective equipment is the last line of defence, not the first.
Traps: treating PPE as a substitute for elimination or engineering controls; forgetting that scaffold sheeting can create wind and fire risks; overlooking ground contamination from fuel or hydraulic fluid; and assuming environmental controls are someone else's responsibility. Expect questions on waste hierarchy and on the need for spill kits and bunded storage.
Worked rule of thumb: Apply the hierarchy - eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, then PPE. For a fuel-powered tool on site, control is bunded storage, drip trays, a spill kit, and correct disposal, not just gloves and goggles.