Environmental and Occupational Health: Water, Waste, and Worker Safety
What this domain tests
Safe water, sanitation, waste management, vector control, occupational hazards, and prevention.
Core rules and concepts
- Safe water: protect the source, chlorinate, filter, and boil. Store in a covered container with a ladle, not by dipping cups.
- Sanitation: safe excreta disposal, handwashing with soap, drainage, and vector control.
- Biomedical waste segregation at source: yellow for infectious waste, red for contaminated recyclables, white for sharps, blue for glassware.
- Occupational hazards: biological (needlesticks), chemical (disinfectants), physical (noise, radiation), ergonomic (lifting), psychosocial (shift work).
- Prevention: engineering controls, administrative controls, PPE, immunisation, and safe work practices.
- Mercury spill: do not vacuum; use a mercury spill kit, ventilate, and dispose as hazardous waste.
Worked example
A hospital cleaner finds used needles in a general waste bin. Reasoning: this is a sharps hazard and a legal breach. The cleaner should not pick them out by hand; use forceps and a sharps container, report the incident, and re-educate staff on segregation at source. The corrective action is system-based, not blaming one worker.
Traps that cost marks
- Putting sharps in a plastic bag.
- Using a broom to sweep mercury.
- Assuming chlorination works in turbid water; it does not reliably.
- Treating PPE as the first control instead of the last line of defence.