Safety Training and Workplace Safety Practices
Domain 2: Safety Training and Workplace Safety Practices
This domain tests whether you can identify hazards, apply the hierarchy of controls, train workers to a measurable standard, and document the result. Landscape work changes daily-heat, traffic, buried utilities, sharp equipment, and chemicals-so safety must be planned into the job rather than added at the end.
Core rules and concepts
- Use the hierarchy of controls. Eliminate or substitute the hazard first, then engineer controls such as guards, ventilation, and barriers, then administrative controls such as procedures and rotation, and finally PPE. PPE is the last line of defense, not the first.
- Hazard Communication. Keep a chemical inventory, maintain current safety data sheets, label secondary containers, and train workers on the specific hazards in a language they understand.
- Energy control. Follow lockout/tagout for equipment maintenance and verify zero energy before repair. Treat utility locates and trenching as planned operations, not improvised tasks.
- Heat and fatigue. Use acclimatization, water, shade, rest breaks, and a buddy system. New hires carry higher heat risk during their first weeks.
- Equipment and traffic. Match guards and PPE to the tool, and separate workers from moving vehicles with signage, spotters, and high-visibility clothing.
Worked example
A crew is assigned to clear a bed beside a roadway on a 95°F day. The supervisor starts with controls: schedule work for early morning, set cones and a spotter, provide shade and water, and rotate tasks. The crew is trained on heat illness signs and the stop-work rule. PPE-high-visibility vests and eye protection-is required but not treated as the main control. The tailgate talk is documented with the date, topic, and attendees.
Traps
- Answering “wear PPE” when the question asks for the best control.
- Assuming gloves protect against every chemical.
- Skipping documentation because the talk was short.
- Treating a near miss as unimportant rather than as free evidence of a failing control.