Occupational Safety, Health and Environment
This domain tests statutory-style site rules: the PPE required for a task, the depth or height at which extra protection becomes mandatory, and environmental controls a supervisor must enforce.
Rules a site check verifies
- PPE: helmet, safety shoes, goggles, gloves, dust mask and, above 1.8 m without edge protection, a full-body harness on an independent lifeline.
- Scaffold: working platform with guardrails at about 1 m and 0.5 m, toe boards 150 mm high, base plates on firm ground, and no working on incomplete lifts.
- Excavation: shoring or timbering for depths beyond 1.5 m in loose soil, ladder access at intervals not exceeding 7.5 m, spoil stacked at least 0.6 m from the edge, barricades with warning lights at night.
- Electrical: three-pin plugs, ELCB protection, no joints in wet areas, no bare conductors.
- Fire and health: extinguishers colour-coded red, no open burning on site, first-aid box, dust suppression by water spraying, silt traps before discharge, waste segregation.
- Management systems: ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety.
Worked example
A trench 2.4 m deep in loose soil beside a public road. Depth exceeds 1.5 m, so shoring is required. Ladder access is needed, and at 7.5 m intervals at most. Spoil is stacked 0.6 m clear of the edge. The trench is barricaded with reflective tape and a night lamp, and the supervisor inspects it daily before workers enter.
Traps that cost marks
Wearing the helmet reversed; clipping a harness to the scaffold being worked on rather than an independent lifeline; relying on a dust mask alone when silica dust needs wet cutting; assuming barricading is optional for shallow trenches; ignoring noise and night-work limits in residential areas.