Industrial Safety and Work Practices
What the exam tests
Hazard identification, correct PPE and guarding, fire classification, electrical and confined-space precautions, and the Factories Act framework.
Core rules
- Hierarchy of control: eliminate → substitute → engineering controls such as guarding and ventilation → administrative controls → PPE, which is the last line of defence.
- Machine guarding: fixed guards on transmissions, interlocked guards where access is needed, two-hand controls on presses; no loose clothing or jewellery near a lathe chuck or drill spindle.
- Lockout–tagout means isolating the energy source, locking it, tagging it and proving dead before work begins.
- Fire classes and extinguishers: A solids (water, foam), B flammable liquids (foam, CO2, dry powder), C gases (dry powder, CO2), D metals (special dry powder). Never use water on live electrical equipment.
- The Factories Act 1948 requires fencing of machinery, limits on hours, a safety officer in large factories, and reporting of accidents.
- Dust and fume are controlled by local exhaust ventilation; noise exposure calls for hearing protection.
- 5S housekeeping and correct manual lifting, with a straight back and the load held close, prevent most shop-floor injuries.
- Confined-space entry needs gas testing, an attendant and a permit.
Worked example
A worker must clear chips from a running lathe. By hand or brush near the chuck, the hazard is entanglement. The control is to stop the spindle, lock out the drive, and use a chip hook - elimination and engineering control. Goggles are correct PPE, but they do nothing for entanglement, so PPE alone is the wrong answer.
Traps
- Choosing PPE as the first control.
- Using water on a petrol or electrical fire.
- Treating a tag as equivalent to a lock.