Safety, Environmental Compliance, and Workshop Practice
Safety, Environmental Compliance, and Workshop Practice
This domain tests safe lifting, personal protective equipment, fire response, hazardous-waste handling, refrigerant recovery, and workshop housekeeping. Expect scenario questions on spills, fire, and waste segregation.
Core rules
- Wear safety glasses, gloves, and safety footwear. Remove jewellery and tie back hair near rotating parts.
- Lift on specified points; use jack stands and wheel chocks. Never work under a vehicle held only by a jack.
- Fire classes: A solids, B flammable liquids, C energized electrical. Use dry powder or CO2 for fuel or electrical fires; never water on fuel or live electrical equipment.
- Segregate waste: used oil, oil filters, coolant, brake fluid, solvents, and refrigerant are separate streams. Store in labelled containers and use safety data sheets.
- Recover refrigerant with approved equipment; do not vent it. Use lockout/tagout and high-voltage PPE on hybrid and electric vehicles.
- Clean spills immediately and protect drains.
Worked example
A 5 L used-oil spill occurs. Stop the source, protect drains, contain the oil with absorbent, place used absorbent in a labelled hazardous-waste container, clean the floor with approved degreaser, and record the incident. Reasoning: oil is hazardous waste; hosing it to a drain transfers the problem and may be illegal.
Traps
- Mixing waste oil with solvent or coolant.
- Using water on a fuel fire.
- Wearing loose gloves near a rotating pulley.
- Bypassing interlocks on high-voltage systems.
- Storing waste in unlabelled containers.